Weight Loss Reborn!

Thankfully, diet foods and fads are making their way out. According to the Calorie Control Council (CCC), an international nonprofit representing the low-calorie and reduced-fat food and beverage industry (who knew there was such an organization?!), die-hard dieting has seen its last days – the number of Americans on restrictive meal plans has dropped from 20 percent to 13 percent since 2004, and the word diet is one of the least-preferred terms on nutrition labels. I say it’s about @#$% time! Now that we’ve wised up to the fact that there’s no magical way to thinner thighs, we can say good riddance to meals that taste like the box they come in and head into bikini season with a smarter, more successful strategy for shaking off our belly jiggle once and for all. Below are four small, gradual, healthy, permanent changes you can make, none of which require you to spend two or more hours a day at the gym or starve yourself on plain lettuce!

• Think forever. If you can’t see yourself eating or exercising a certain way for the rest of your life – say, consuming raw food and running five miles every day – you shouldn’t be doing it to lose weight in the first place. The only changes that work are those you can continue indefinitely. If you reach your goal weight when you’re hitting the gym three times a week and cooking you r own meals instead of getting takeout – and those are changes you know you can live with – then they’re going to work a whole lot better than any short-term trick. Weight management has to be habitual and it must fit into your everyday routine, just like brushing your teeth.

• Think small. Before you revamp your eating habits, take a few weeks to write down everything you eat. Don’t worry about counting fat, protein, calories, and portions – just keep track of what you’ve already consumed before you put the next thing in your mouth. It gives your brain a chance to say no. Once you see it all on paper, look for small, simple ways to scale back. It’s easier than you think: Switch from a roast beef sandwich on a bun with provolone and mayo to roast beef in a whole-wheat pita with light Swiss and mustard. Instead of eating cocktail peanuts, munch on pistachios that you have to peel one by one. These kinds of things sound insignificant, but they are the answers we’re all looking for.

• Think physical. Believe it or not, I’m not talking about exercise here. You may have heard of something called the “French Paradox”: the insanely unfair way Parisian women linger over multi-course, rich dinners, drink all the wine they want, and have dessert, yet still look great. The reason: studies show that the French rely more on internal cues (like when they’re comfortably full) and Americans rely on external cues (like when Grey’s Anatomy ends). We’re not even paying attention to what we eat or how much. And often, we’re not even realizing whether we’re really physically hungry. People eat for social reasons, or because they’ve had a bad day, or for comfort. To retrain yourself to heed hunger cues, imagine your stomach as a gas tank. After every bite, check in to see where the dial is hovering. Close to empty? Right in the middle? Learn to never let it push past full.

• Think action. In an on-going study of dieters who maintained a weight loss of 30 pounds for at least one year, 90 percent report that regular physical exercise is the key to sustaining their loss. An exercise routine may be a pain (literally!) to start, but thanks to the happy-hormone rush we get when we break a sweat, it can quickly become a healthy addiction. Sure, taking off the extra flab is more work than putting it on probably was, but even when the going gets tough, it’s better than eating nothing but cabbage soup, avoiding the bread aisle, or choking down food you hate.

Bottom line: People no longer have to make themselves miserable in order to lose weight. Dieting may be dead, but your beach-ready bod will live on!

Meet the Trainer

Crystal is a certified personal trainer through the National Sports and Conditioning Association (NSCA). She has a passion for helping others live a healthy lifestyle and coaching them to push their limits beyond what they think they are capable of.