Healthy Eating Tip:
Realize the Benefits of a Preemptive Weight Loss Tactic and Mindfulness!
I just returned from a trip back to Connecticut. If you read this blog every week, then you know I planned for some emotional eating and the associated weight gain that goes along with it, so I lost some weight preemptively to offset that anticipated weight gain. That is one tactic you can use to offset the anticipated holiday season weight gain if binge-eating around the holidays is a problem for you. Remember that being prepared for things that you know will happen is one of the behaviors that can help you be successful with lifestyle modification. If you know you gain weight every holiday season, then not planning for that eventuality is irresponsible and will ultimately lead to failure. Bringing your head into the game by being mindful is essential. Being successful with lifestyle modification doesn’t just happen. It’s hard work that demands long-term strategies and innovative short-term tactics that are designed specifically for you.
We all need to “own our own health” and be responsible for developing a lifestyle modification plan specifically designed for our own needs based on our present willingness to change and the ability to follow through. Looking at how other people successfully reduce weight and maintain health is important for you to do. It will help you devise your own long-term lifestyle modification strategy. You can read about the details of my 28-day diet reset at the healthy eating blog post entitled Strike Preemptively If You Have To.
The long-term strategy I have used to maintain my 60-80 weight loss for over 18 years is to vacillate between the plant-based whole foods diet and what I call a “maintenance diet.” The maintenance diet has some “Transition Foods” in it that are a little higher in fat, and I allow myself some other small indulgences that make the diet easier to tolerate than the plant-based whole foods diet that I use to keep myself close to my ideal body weight and maintain health. Before my trip to Connecticut, I returned to the plant-based whole foods diet for 28 days and dropped 6 pounds painlessly without counting calories or starving myself. Read about that at the link above for the details. I plotted weights on a chart, and there is some pertinent information about my experience that might help you with your lifestyle modification journey.
Recall that I started on Sept. 12 at 193.4 pounds and ended on Oct. 9 at 187.4 pounds representing a weight loss of exactly 6 pounds. Upon returning to Smith Center, I weighed in for the first time on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 192.8 pounds. That’s a 5.4-pound weight gain for the trip. If I had not looked ahead and planned for the uncontrolled emotional eating I knew would happen on the trip, I would have put that 5.4 pounds onto the 193.4 pounds I started at on September 12 and be at 198.8 pounds right now! As I mention in that Strike Preemptively If You Have To healthy eating tip, 200 pounds triggers an automatic return to the plant-based whole foods diet for me and not for just 28 days! Because I practice mindfulness, I know my body well enough to know that 200 pounds is an unhealthy weight for me. At 200 pounds, my back starts to give me issues, my cholesterol and triglycerides are most probably elevated, and my blood sugar may be uncontrolled. 192.8 pounds is not an ideal weight for me either. As we have just seen, just one week of poor food choices can put me over the critical weight of 200 pounds.
Failure with my lifestyle modification is not an option, so I will turn my metabolism around again, return to the plant-based whole foods diet, and pick up where I left off on Oct. 9. One advantage of not being at the critical weight of 200 pounds is that I don’t have to initiate the plant-based whole foods diet immediately. I will use this week to ease into it slowly and aim for a start next Sunday, Nov. 1. I don’t have family here, and I work all holidays, so the holiday season does not represent a dieting challenge to me at all. I’ll do a final weight on Friday, Jan. 1, and post another chart with plotted weights and make some observations in the healthy eating tip for that Friday, Jan. 1, 2021. Being mindful applies to all aspects of your life. The weight-loss tactic I just described to you is a product of mindful awareness of my willingness level to change, an intimate knowledge of my personal diet challenges, and being keenly aware of opportunities that present themselves, and having the ability to take advantage of them. Continually working on your lifestyle modification tool kit is essential. Developing your creative tactics and learning to be mindful in all regards are both indispensable tools that need to be in your lifestyle modification tool kit!
During the next two months, I will concentrate on creating a format to get some video clips posted showing ways that you can make the plant-based whole foods diet taste better by getting umami in your food!