Roadblocks: After doing the above suggestion for a period of time, if you encounter roadblocks, you may need to play with these numbers. You can take a week where you ramp up the daily calories by 1-2 hundred calories. Then return back to the original goal weight calories.
Cravings: After a time, you may develop overwhelming cravings. It may mean you have cut back on those cals too much. It is ok if you have a day where you want to eat. You may need to ramp up your caloric intake for several days when cravings come. Be mindful of not being too drastic. Being too drastic may yield rapid weight loss, but you will have a more unstable emotional state. (also rapid weight loss rarely remains off - you usually gain all of the weight back but it finds some friends to come along when it returns) Being in an emotional state while trying to loose weight is usually a bad combination and will more than likely lead to failure.
Another factor that may be causing cravings is you are at a certain cycle in your month. So always be aware of the calendar. Hormones can drive us. Cravings in themselves are not bad. It is the bodies way of telling us what it needs. So listen to what your body is crying out for. Ask God to reveal to you what it is your body wants. (scripture says we have not because we ask not) For example, if you are having this insatiable desire for chocolate, you may need magnesium (there is a low fat way to get that and a fattening way) You have the freedom to choose which one. If you are craving tons of butter, your body is probably needing fat. (you can get a handful of almonds -about 5- or avocado is an excellent healthy fat) If you are craving sugary foods you may need to increase your carbs. You can choose multigrains to get that as a healthier alternative to a sugary treat. If you are craving anything at all, there is an underlying biological need driving it. So listen to your body. Is it crying out for a Snickers? You may be needing both the magnesium from the chocolate and the protein from the peanuts the carbs from the caramel. Should you try to satisfy that desire with a healthy choice? You can or just eat the snickers and enjoy it. Record it in your calories and accommodate for it the next day or so. It is not evil and it is not cheating to act on cravings. That is the beauty of this program. You can have what your body desires in moderation and on occasion. You just have to be smart about it.
In this blog, I wrote about focus and how it helps us succeed. http://on-wings-as-eagles.blogspot.com/2010/10/where-is-your-focus.html I believe that there are many ways to succeed at living a healthier life. If you begin to focus on being healthier and educating yourself to make wiser decisions with what, how much and frequency of food consumption, you will find you will succeed. If you focus on exercise as part of your life, you will find you will succeed. The good thing about New Years Resolutions is that it gets you focused on the goal. The problem is that most resolution fail because our focus gets quickly diverted.
Ways to develop this focus is what spurs programs like Weight Watchers, personal trainers, and nutritionist. They are just methods to get you to focus and to help you stay focused. The methods themselves are not magical. They are only effective if you use them and they help you keep your focus. As for the methods, you use what works for you. You can get an accountability partner, you can post cards or pictures around your house especially in the kitchen to remind yourself. You can join a fitness center, you can even find someone to design a food plan for you. But your most important part of this method is that you remain focused on it.
Encouraging others to live healthier lives is just part of my passion. I hope you find encouragement in this today.
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