Free Articles For Reprint

If you love donuts and hate diets, you’re not alone. Losing weight doesn’t have to be torture, but it might involve redefining the kinds of things that you love. The main thing is that you don’t want the weeks and months ahead of you to be anything less than enjoyable as you move towards your weight-loss goal. Here are a few ways to do so:

1. Look out for number one. I’m not talking about ignoring you family or anything drastic, but in order to put your health and emotional wellness on the front burner you’ve got to make it a priority. After all, it’s not selfish to take care of yourself. It’s quite the contrary if you think about it. If everyone around you depends on you to keep their worlds revolving, what would they do if you weren’t up to the physical challenge? Chances are you do a lot of things for others and now it’s time to do some things for yourself as well. The time you spend working out and creating healthful meals and snacks will benefit everyone around you.

2. Treat yourself as if you are a spa client. Why the heck not, right? Why does water taste so much better in a pretty glass with a slice of lemon in it? Take the time to put on some soothing music while you cook and light a candle when you sit down to enjoy what you’ve come up with. If you want your new approach to eating to last, you want to avoid feeling deprived.

3. Make grocery shopping a weekly priority and not a mere task. You don’t need to pre-plan meals and make extensive shopping lists, but you should make thoughtful choices at the supermarket. Load the cart with lean proteins, whole grains and plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and you can’t go wrong once you’re back at home at mealtime.

4. Forgive yourself for slip-ups. Have a plan in mind for the invariable cheat here and there so you don’t freefall back to square one (or worse). Train yourself to stop after the first bite or two and get back on track right away. A minor infraction (otherwise known as the chocolate chip cookie) won’t necessarily erase all progress on weigh-in day, but a stack of them certainly would. Make adjustments to your next meal to make up for the empty calories that you took in. Either have a smaller portion or skip your planned healthy snack later in the day. If the whole day was one big mess-up, go to bed with the attitude that tomorrow will be a good day. If you miss whatever you do for daily exercise, do an extra chore around the house to make up for it. If you pick up the pace, you’ll end up with a good amount of calories burned and a clean house as well.

Once you chalk up a few good days in a row of healthy eating and getting exercise, you’ll be on your way to losing weight. What’s more, if you incorporate these steps, you’re overall quality of life will feel better too.

Julie Clark Robinson writes on a wide variety of topics which include Georgia colleges, Florida colleges, and online degree programs.