Winter Weight Loss - Get a headstart!
This winter, get a head start on weight loss by absorbing some of these common sense tips for getting rid of the kilos and keeping them off.
Reward yourself.
According to some studies, people who refuse themselves treats (a soft drink here and there, an ice cream) tend to more weight than people who occasionally indulge themselves. There's something about the psychological effect of pushing something out of your life that you want there - when you fail, you fail big. Drink a soft drink every once in a while, eat an ice cream. Deny yourself the second one though, but not the first. If you give yourself a reward or two when you deserve it, weight management won't have to control your life, and people won't stop hanging out with you because you keep counting calories all the time.
Park further away.
Every little bit counts, so take the long parking spot from work or from university, walk a little bit farther. If you're going to the mall, park way out and walk in. Little stuff like this is the key to losing weight; the more movement you can put into your everyday life, the better chance you have of losing the winter weight. Whilst you're on the phone, walk around while you talk. At the office, try to give yourself a task that requires movement (copy papers, get coffee for co-workers, etc.) every twenty minutes or so. It's the little bits that add up and burn calories.
Don't try miracle diets. There are some diets that basically deprive your body of valuable nutrients, causing weightloss, and as soon as you go off the diet, your body tries to compensate and ends up packing on the kilos. Among these are Atkins and the Meal Replacement diets. Just stick to eating healthy; three decent sized meals or five smaller meals a day with healthy foods, no fast food, and moderate exercise, and you'll be much happier and lose much more winter weight than with the quick fix diets.
Clean your house.
Many of us live in cold climates where walking around outside isn't much fun in the winter, but house cleaning can burn those calories, especially sweeping. Put on some tunes and clean house for twenty minutes or more every day. You'll end up burning the winter calories and ending up with a better looking body and a better looking house.
Cut out the extras.
A coffee black is five calories. If you put sugar in it, you're multiplying those calories. If you put cream in, it's even worse. Just learn to drink black coffee, skip chocolates and other sweets unless it's only an occasional thing (see the next tip for more on that), skip the cheese on your sandwich at lunch, skip the soda and have a green tea, and in general try to cut out calories that you don't typically think about. You'll notice a big difference.
Really, this is all common sense, but that's what good weight loss technique is: keeping yourself in a good state of mind and carefully weighing your choices and options (pun intended). Watch yourself without getting too uptight about it and you'll shed the winter pounds steadily and permanently.
Exercise for your mood & wellbeing
We all know that exercise is good for us but few of us follow through on what we should be doing. Ideally we've all experienced that feeling of post exercise relaxation that comes from elevated endorphins and lowered stress hormones. Aside from the good feel-good, mind-clearing effects of exercise, however, are the obvious general health benefits for the heart and muscles, and also the general anti-stress benefits that help to control appetite, regulate blood sugar, curb overeating, and improve sleep.
The high stress/bad sleep/no exercise cycle is a vicious one - but breaking it, even by doing a small amount of exercise several times a week, can provide dramatic benefits. The key thing here is that you don't need to run a marathon or become a tri-athlete. Just a simple game of tennis, a walk along the beach, or a quick routine of sit ups and push ups before heading out the door in the morning will go a long way to getting those feel good hormones into a healthy range. Even light physical activity in small manageable amounts will trigger a cascade of stress busting benefits, like lowering your blood pressure to improving your mood.
Check out the Sparc internet site http://pushplay.sparc.org.nz/ for some excellent ideas to get you started on a regular exercise programme. And also take a look at the list below to jump start your thinking about ways to sneak in small increments of exercise into your daily routine:
- Add a few hundred yards of walking into your daily activity by parking the car further away from the mall or workplace.
- If using public transport, try riding your bike or park your car a few blocks away and walk the rest of the way to catch your ride.
- Be a rebel and take the stairs not the escalator and remember to smile.
- Instead of having a neighbourhood kid or your own do your exercise for you, get out there and mow your own lawns, sweep the stairs, rake the leaves and weed the garden.
Coping with winter blues
Winter is quickly approaching, with longer hours of darkness. This often triggers feelings of tiredness, feeling less active, and low mood. Often, we don't even know what is 'wrong' with us, we just don't seem to have the energy to get out and exercise, or sometimes can't even complete daily chores. This may be due to an imbalance of neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine, or other neurotransmitters, which are brain chemicals that are responsible for the way we feel. There are a few possible causes for an imbalance, such as food and chemical sensitivities, which can cause poor concentration and mental activity. Pesticides and solvents have such an effect on the brain. Nutrient deficiencies such as Folate, Vitamins B12, B6, B3 etc, create a chemical disturbance in the brain, affecting neurotransmitter balance. Other causes can be viral infections (many depressive disorders originate after a viral infection).
Women who experience PMT or Menopause symptoms, often suffer from 'blues' or depressive phases. This is caused by oestrogen, that increases secretion of certain neurotransmitters. The oral contraceptive pill creates deficiencies in Vitamin C and B-vitamins, which can lead to depression. Low functioning thyroid (Hypothyroidism) always has the effect on the emotional wellbeing and needs to be looked at when depression is a factor. Triggers for depression can be stressful situations, trauma, etc. It is important to know that life experience affects brain chemistry at least as much as brain chemistry affects life experience! So what can we do to break that cycle? To start with, I always recommend nutritional support, as 'pull yourself together' is NOT an effective piece of advice when supporting a person with depression. They don't have the energy to exercise which is a very effective way of increasing serotonin, so we need to balance their nutritional status first.
Here are some tips to help you:
- If on a low fat diet, there may be a deficiency in omega 3 fatty acids. This results in increased rates of depression. Use Fish oils, Evening Primrose supplementation, or Flaxseed oil.
- B Vitamins are absolutely essential, as well as zinc, which is deficient in depressed people. Nutrient+ is highly effective. If you have a zinc test available, you can easily establish if there is a zinc deficiency.
- Vitamin C deficiency can show symptoms of fatigue, irritability, and the 'blues'. Use Multi-C. Remember, vitamin C is important to regulate the thyroid, which is the master gland for metabolism! Highly important for successful weight loss results.
- Blood sugar levels need to be monitored as they are a factor when low mood or depression is present. Regular meals are essential to prevent hypoglycaemia. Cal-Mag is another vital supplement to add it assists with a complete nutrient balance.
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