You may want to lose weight this year for many reasons. You may want to look a certain way, or you may want to lead a healthier, more active lifestyle, but your weight keeps holding you back.
So long as you have decided on that weight loss and are committed to the process, you’re already well on your way to making a difference. That commitment is what’s going to be needed to make the key differences in your diet and lifestyle, but you don’t need to go at it alone.
Instead, try out these top five effective weight loss strategies, and do remember that effective, lasting results take longer than any crash diet you may have tried in advance.
Receive Ongoing Guidance from Healthcare Professionals
If you want to lose weight healthily and sustainably, then you need to work with a healthcare professional. Thanks to telehealth, it’s now possible to get that care and guidance from licensed healthcare professionals wherever you are. You don’t need to go to the doctor’s office regularly. Instead, you can benefit from virtual weight loss management right at home.
Try Intuitive Eating
Intuitive eating is simple: you eat when you are hungry, and you stop when you are full. If there’s even just a little bit left on your plate, just leave it. You can wrap up the plate and put it in the fridge to eat later on in the day, for example, or even the next day. It takes time to adjust to intuitive eating if you regularly force yourself to clean your plate, but it’s one of the best ways to naturally regulate your weight by listening to what your body tells you.
Give Your Pantry an Overhaul
For many, simply changing out what’s in their pantry with the base ingredient or with a simple switch can do wonders. Instead of reaching for the sugary cereal, for example, create your own granola mix for breakfast. Instead of eating pre-packaged and heavily processed snacks, make your own. Small changes can also go a long way. For example, you can swap out your plain pasta for whole wheat pasta.
The goal here is simple. You want the food in your fridge, freezer, and pantry to be whole, so with as minimal processing as possible, and also packed full of nutrients. Between specific health recommendations from your doctor, a more intuitive approach to eating, and healthier ingredients, you will naturally start losing weight. The results, however, can be very slow. If you want more dramatic results, discuss this with your healthcare practitioner.
Get Your Body Moving
Exercise is the second leg that’s essential in any weight loss journey. What’s important to realize, however, is that the goal of exercise is to help improve your health, your energy, and even your mood. It will help you lose weight, but you will always see more significant results from following a healthy diet.
That’s why it’s not as important that you overextend yourself at the gym and instead find healthy ways to stay active. A good way to do this is actually to join a social club instead. If you join a runner’s club or a cyclist’s club, for example, you can hang out with people and find more excuses to get active.