Ice Bath Weight Loss Your Secret Weapon in the Weight-Loss Battle.
The first thing, of course, is to commit to losing weight. If you're uncommitted, then no system will work, and it's probably why you are still carrying the fat and maybe adding to it. First, you have to decide that you are fed up (ha!) with lugging it all around and having clothes look lumpy, and having bathing suit season bring on feelings of terror and desperation, and feeling ashamed and guilty about your fat. You absolutely must commit to the idea that you are in control of what goes into your body. Once you do that, the rest is amazingly easy.
Commit
A few honest soul-searching minutes naked in front of a mirror will help you get started. The harder you find this is to do, the happier you will be with the outcome it's going to give you. Take handfuls of your fat (yes, I mean it) and see how you feel about it. Imagine the fat gone. Imagine the body underneath the fat, the you that is cloaked in this overcoat of fat, and decide that you're going to set it free. Whenever you feel yourself wavering in confrontation with a bread basket or a platter of fried chicken, summon up this moment. Rekindle your commitment to the emerging you.
Study
At first, don't change anything. Spend a week paying attention to what you eat, when, and how much. Observe the situations, times of day, or particular foods that trigger you to want to eat. You now know these are your hot zones and you can be prepared to win in your encounters with them.
Think about these questions:
- How do you behave around second helpings or the second dollop after the first spoonful has landed on your plate? It doesn't matter why you feel you need it, just notice if you do feel you need it.
- How do you feel about leaving food on your plate? How you feel about food left over? Do you feel some tension around food left uneaten, whether it's on your plate or still on the platter or in the pan?
Your observations during this week are going to show you your strategy for your weight-loss campaign. You will know where your enemy (your appetite) is weakest.
Now Act
- Begin your campaign -- and this is a campaign -- by making your first portions smaller. Not a lot smaller, just a very little bit smaller. Do the same with your second portion, if you take one. Do it for everything, including vegetables for now, until you begin to see smaller portions as the normal size for you. You are training your eyes and your stomach to have new expectations. Continue reducing you portion size just a little bit every week.
- Start listening to your hunger center. As you adjust to smaller portions, you will begin to be aware of signals that you're actually getting full. You will find that as you eat less, you also need less to feel satisfied (particularly as you begin to enjoy the satisfaction of seeing your body change).
- When you notice yourself being regularly satisfied with eating less, you can experiment with making your meat or main portion even smaller and add a bit to your vegetable portions. This will keep you eating the same amount of food but will give a little beneficial shift to the calorie count.
- Make adjustment to your portion size as you begin to lose weight, until you feel you are eating a quantity of food that feels like enough but that still allows you to continue losing weight.
There you are. That is all you have to do. No calorie counting, no pills, no giving up your favorite foods, nothing but just slowly making your portions smaller until that becomes normal eating to you. Stick with it until you are the weight you want, and keep on eating this way, being mindful of how much you put on your plate. Don't go back to your old ways and you'll never have to worry about weight again.
Tips:
1. Use small-sized dinnerware. I'm serious. The eleven inch dinner plate that is now our standard tableware is designed to hold a huge amount of food, especially great slabs of meat. It's almost impossible to resist trying to cover all that blank space with food. Fancy restaurants will fill in around a small portion of precious entree with sauce swirls and artistic food decor because a big empty plate makes us feel like we're not getting enough. Get smaller plates and bowls for your regular use. You'll be amazed at the difference it will make.
2. Practice "Forget You!" Decide that for you, for now, certain foods simply do not exist. Put your most serious food threats into this category. Once Iyou have decided to make a certain food off limits, it will cease to be a threatening temptation to you. It doesn't exist. The only time you allow it back into your world is when you know for certain that this is going to be a uniquely superior version of it, or it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Don't reject a chance at something really great. This strategy will save you over and over every day but will let you have the really good stuff when you're sure it will be the really good stuff. Look at that piece of cake or those fries: how good, really, is it going to be? Is it worth it?
3. Develop your inner smug. This is your most effective weapon against the people around you urging you to ignore your program and have the chocolate cake or the deep-fried ice cream or whatever. While telling them no, thanks, just keep repeating to yourself the mantra "Better you than me", and you'll get through the situation just fine.
This plan is simple, easy to follow, allows for backslides and mistakes, is non-shaming, and can accommodate any additional wholesome changes in your eating habits you might like to introduce. Once you have dealt with your weight to your satisfaction, you might give some thought to how healthful your food habits are in terms of nutrition for the long haul. Corny as it sounds, you really are what you eat.
Good luck, and hang in there!
Ice Bath Weight Loss.