You’re doing everything right!
Most of your meals are home cooked. When you go out for dinner, you choose fish or salad. You feel in your heart that you’re doing everything right… but you’re not losing weight… How Frustrating!
Here are two easily fixable reasons you may not be losing weight, and the simple, actionable solutions you can take to get back on your path towards achieving healthy weight loss:
The “Just One” syndrome:
Throughout the day there are a million small temptations that tease you until you give in. There’s even the dreaded nibbles corner at work. You know, the dreaded area designated for treats.
As you pass by you can’t help it. You’re drawn to it… Then you “accidentally” (on purpose) take “just one chip” .
Let’s not forget your friend’s birthday. You have to take “just one SMALL piece of birthday cake”. (You’d feel rude if you didn’t). Later you order a healthy salad at the restaurant, but your friend orders the richest looking dish. She offers you a bite and you say “just one small bite, thanks” . ..
Just one small glass of wine, just one piece of chocolate, just one bite.. the problem is, the bites add up.
The “just one” syndrome is a sneaky weight loss saboteur because we don’t realize just how much extra we’ve eaten. We see each bite as a separate incident, a separate unit that overall shouldn’t affect our weight loss.
And you’re right! One bite doesn’t matter. But the accumulation of “just one” bites throughout the day or week add up to a lot of extra calories and maybe even extra pounds… but one thing’s for sure.. there’s definitely no loss in your weight loss goal.
The “Elastic Solution”: It’s quick, it’s simple and it brings you back to mindful eating without having to write down everything you eat.
Grab a bunch of elastic bands or, for style, get bracelets (the kind that you can buy individually, such as hoops) and put them in your pocket or in your purse.
Make the conscious effort to put an elastic or bracelet around your wrist every time you take a”just one bite” and see how many bands or bracelets you have at the end of the day.
Try to reduce the number of bracelets you end your day with. Begin slowly. Reduce the number by one each day until you’ve successfully achieved none. Do this challenge everyday, always aiming for zero bands.
If you have just one syndrome, I promise you the pounds will begin to melt off as you cut back on the quantity of bites you eat each day.
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Portion Distortion:
Just because you’re eating healthy doesn’t mean your’e not over eating. One of the culprits of weight gain when you’re not eating badly comes from portion distortion.
Over the past 40 years portions are up to 5 times larger than they used to be.
It’s not just restaurant portions that have grown.
Unknowingly, we eat more at home because our plates have increases in size by 2 inches .
This change in plate size adds up to an extra 1,500 calories per day that you could be consuming in one day.
That equates to one whole day of eating for the average woman who’s trying to lose weight!
Even car manufacturers are involved in the portion distortion. Car manufacturers have increased the size of car cup holders, just so we can hold our super sized drink.
I experienced the frustration of Super Sized “portion distortion” back in 2012. Canada’s beloved Tim Hortons increased their cup sizes. The original large that i used to get became a medium. The new large became an extra large and the extra large became the new 24 ounce coffee. (that’s equivalent to three cups of coffee in one cup). I had to order a medium in order to drink what was usually my large.
The problem is, we have fuzzy days where we’re on auto pilot and things slip our minds. So on more than one occasion I accidently ordered a large instead of the medium and because of the size change I ended up with an extra-large.
Thank goodness coffee doesn’t have that many calories.. but I can tell you on the days I slip up, I don’t sleep at night.. not because I’ve made a mistake (we all make mistakes.. right!?) but because I had way too much caffeine in my body.
We don’t realize that we’re ingesting more, drinking more calories, eating bigger portions. And we gain weight. The best solution is to set in place simple strategies that create mindful eating.
Three Small Solutions That Combat Portion Distortion and Help You Lose Weight:
- Order One Size Smaller: When You’re at a restaurant or on the go compensate for portion distortion by ordering one size down from what you would have originally eaten.
- Eat Half: Some foods are not sized, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t gotten bigger. Muffins are a great example. They have increased in size by more than 300% from 210 calories 20 years ago to now, the average muffin is 510 calories. If you eat just half of the muffin you’re back down to a standard portion size.
- At home use salad plates instead of dinner plates: Smaller plates cut the size of your at home meals back down by 2 inches. The trick is, when our brain sees the smaller portion but the plate is full, our mind believes we’re eating a bigger amount. We feel just as full and satisfied as if we ate the bigger portion, but we eat way less and lose more weight!
It’s time to put those weight loss frustration behind you! When you eat healthy and you practice these simple techniques, I know you’ll see the weight loss results you deserve! These really simply strategies are complete game changers in your weight loss journey. You’ll feel lighter and see the weight loss results you’re after in no time at all!
Give it a try!