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The following article was published in Your Health Magazine. Our mission is to empower people to live healthier.
Anne M. Rensberger, LICSW
Ten Steps To Losing Weight For People Who Have Tried Before and Failed
Wondercoach

Ten Steps To Losing Weight For People Who Have Tried Before and Failed

Weight management issues affect people of every age, economic status, race and ethnic background. There are numerous contributors to obesity. For some, being overweight is not just the result of overeating or inactivity. Why can some people eat what they want and not gain weight while others exercise and diet and still struggle to control their weight?

It might be genetics, malfunctioning hormones or neuropeptides, fat cells, medical conditions, viruses, excess food intake, shift work, stress, lack of physical activity, lack of sleep, social dynamics, psychological adaptations, psychiatric and neurological conditions, advertising or serving size. Nevertheless, despite the multitude of causes, there are interventions available today to help individuals lose weight. Even with a genetic predisposition for obesity or faulty metabolic regulators, there are ways of making adjustments in eating and activity patterns that enable individuals to override these.

1. Don't be hard on yourself. If losing weight were easy, you would have done it by now. Go to a sympathetic physician to make certain there is nothing medical interfering with your weight loss.

2. Give up the notion of a quick or effortless journey to a healthier body.

3. Reframe your thinking from one of self-criticism to one of retraining your eating and activity patterns.

4. Find an eating plan that you can live comfortably on. There are many healthy diets out there, and some fit your lifestyle and food preferences better than others.

5. Don't give up every time you mess up. Figure out what happened and what you will do differently next time, to get back to it.

6. Figure out your hardest challenges – perpetual pizza at the office, vacation overindulgences, eating out, eating when under stress, mindless eating in front of the TV. Then make a plan to “solve” each problem.

7. Hang out with people supportive of your efforts and ask those who are not supportive to realize what they are doing and stop.

8. Build activity of any kind into your life in tiny increments. March in place while the microwave is heating your lunch. Schedule five or ten-minute walk breaks during the day and just walk around the office or in the hallways.

9. Enjoy achievements along the way, i.e. “shopping” in your closet for those old clothes you can now get back into.

10. Relish any positive attention as you lose weight because once you are a “normal” size your weight will not attract attention either positive or negative. You will just be you, and that's not so bad, is it?

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