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There are easier ways to manage your weight than counting calories, avoiding carbs, and hopping on every diet trend. Because let's get real, that's a lot of work that no one has the time for!
For lasting change, you want to train to become a healthy eater, not remain a dieter. You already know how a dieter eats, Now, let's look at two key ways a healthy eater eats:
They eat nutritious foods
They have generally good eating habits
To eat nutritiously, start with whole, unprocessed foods. You've heard this a thousand times already, I'm sure but the focus of your diet should be vegetables, some fruits, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats.
And when it comes to the second point, having good eating habits, I like these 5 weight management tips because they don't require willpower. Good eating habits begin before you even eat.
Essentially, good eating habits are the frameworks that guide how you eat.
These weight management tips make managing your weight so much easier.
1. Source Your Foods Better
According to a Forbes magazine article, USDA nutrient data confirms a significant drop in the amounts of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin, and vitamin C in our fresh fruits and vegetables compared to 50+ years ago.
These nutritional deficiencies, the article went on to say, have resulted in poor health effects such as obesity, stunted growth, eye problems, and a spike in non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.
Because the fruits and veggies that we're told are good for our health are now lower in nutrients and have no discernible taste, it makes them less appealing to eat.
In contrast, processed foods have addictive ingredients that make us want to eat more, and because they are convenient and affordable, we do. As a result, we are always tired and grumpy because our bodies are starving for nutrients.
For more nutritious and satisfying produce, shop at Farmers' Markets, join a community garden in your neighborhood, or a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).
CSAs serve major cities such as Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon (Pacific Coast Fruit Company), and New York City (Farm to People).
2. Restrictive Eating
I’m a huge fan of juice fasts and healthy restrictive eating. I believe that our bodies and digestion benefit from them and when we do them regularly, for short periods, they’re perfectly safe.
About once a month, I do restrictive eating for 2-3 days, which means I eat “clean.”
I cut out sugar, wine, dairy, and grains and eat really simple foods. In addition to that, I annually, or when I’m feeling a little backed up, will go beyond clean eating and do a juice-only or green-smoothie-only fast.
Restrictive eating plans will clear out your plumbing and can help you shed 1-2 pounds each time. What it really does (for me anyway) is to help create food discipline.
Instead of dieting once a year to drop 10 pounds, with this approach, I'm doing 12 mini-restrictive eating plans for the year.
This is a much more reliable, less stressful approach to maintaining your weight, and it’s also helpful to your digestion.
3. Drink Water All The Time
If you're willing to find strategies to help yourself to drink water and to make it enjoyable, this can be a great weight management tool to have on tap.
There are simple drink-up strategies that I share with my clients, but the easiest to follow and almost fail-safe way to keep yourself hydrated is to look at your pee each and every time before you flush.
Seeing your hydration level is an immediate trigger to drink up if you're not in the optimal zone.
4. Get Family and Co-Workers Involved
One of the keys to sticking to any new habit is making the environment around you support your efforts.
Rather than having to disconnect from yourself in order to follow all the rules in spite of yourself, you want to learn to cook healthy so that everyone in your family enjoys it. Because you can't eat carrots for the rest of your life while watching your family eat tacos and fried chicken.
At work, you can take over buying snacks for the office so that everyone is happier and healthier, or you can work out something with the person who does. Think bananas, nuts, energy bars, and yogurts.
If your employer already pays for this small perk, take advantage and do more to make it work for you too.
Getting family and co-workers to support your weight management efforts is one of the best weight management secrets out there.
5. Get Enough Sleep
If you’re not getting enough sleep or feeling refreshed when you wake up, it will be hard to stick to your healthy habits.
In 2021, I did an unofficial sleep study and realized that my 6-hour sleep schedule wasn't doing me any favors. Although I was functional and on the "hustler's time schedule," I had also thrown off my hormones and had started putting on weight even though I was keeping up with my healthy eating habits.
I may have been crushing my entrepreneurial goals, but I was losing the weight management battle and had packed on the pounds.
I hope you liked and will use one or more of these weight management strategies.
And if you need more help sticking to your weight management goals, check out the Vurb Wellness Club. At $59 per month, it's an affordable coaching option for women who are ready to change how they care for themselves and show up in the world.
Know this:
It’s the rare person who can “get” a new habit right away... or in a month, or three. It’s natural to start strong and then want to give up when life gets in the way, or because your foundational habits are sabotaging your efforts. We each must find our own way to stay consistent.
Consistency is mostly a mental thing, btw. You do have it in you to do this and anything else you set your mind to. Anything! I do believe that. But sometimes, we hold ourselves back by never doing the simple things that will make an impactful difference.