Eat Sanely’s September 2013 Newsletter is reprinted here….also, we’re again offering a dozen free Kindle downloads of our self-help workbook: Eat Sanely: Get Off the Diet Roller Coaster for Good. Just send your email address to [email protected]
As we say farewell to summer and return to fall routines, know that this is a potent time for planting the seeds of new eating habits. For a variety of reasons, fall resolutions can work better than those made on January 1. This means better chances of weight loss success and improved fitness. What’s more, planting now means habits can take root by the holiday season, maybe saving you from inevitable weight gain then.
Regular followers know that Eat Sanely promotes lasting habit change as the key to weight loss and maintenance. Any of the dozen ideas below can become a significant step forward toward your healthy weight goals. Pick one or two to focus on, stick with them as best you can, pick yourself up and refocus if you get off track. Later in the season, you’ll see that change for the better. And success with that first one or two can breed more success with other targets. So use this time of readjustment to get real change underway!
- Start making and bringing your own lunch to work….make it when you prepare kids’ lunches, perhaps, or set aside leftovers each night for the next day. Either way, you’ll save a lot by avoiding take-out or cafeteria fare.
- Commit to having dinner at home one or more nights than you usually do. The benefits to health and weight are extensive—and it doesn’t have to take all that long.
- Eat more vegetables—add one, two, three, or more servings to your daily routine.
- Try a new vegetable or leafy green type each week for the next couple of months. You’ll expand your vegetable palate and repertoire.
- Plan to cook one thing each weekend that will be available for lunches–or quick-reheat dinners or healthy snacking—during the week. Think of vegetable-based soups and casseroles, chicken or turkey breasts.
- Find one spot in your diet where you can reduce or eliminate sugar. Cutting just one item can make a lasting difference.
- Buy a complete set of containers of different sizes that you can fill after shopping with cut up vegetables, measured servings of nuts or hummus. This way you can easily throw quick snacks or even lunches into a bag with minimal effort.
- Identify one place where you can walk more—using stairs where you usually don’t, parking father than you usually do, etc.
- Identify one time at work that you can move more, whether it’s adding an extra up-and-down stairs errand each day, taking a five-minute break-time walk, etc.
- Reach out to one friend and ask that person to join you in one goal: perhaps a walk once or twice a week, a commitment to bring lunch or remove the office candy dish.
- Talk to your family about the healthy eating goals you all share, or might like to embark on together. Setting realistic, reachable goals together can increase chances of success.
- Write down the one or two habit change targets you’d like rooted by the holidays. Look at what you’ve written frequently; think about why you desire those particular targets.
