Ease up on yourself in weight-loss plan
January 5, 2005
By Vitginia Anderson
Joye Oltmann has bought enough exercise equipment over the years to stock a gym, and enough diet books for a small library.
And yet, like millions of others who try to lose
weight, her efforts have resulted in little more
than disillusionment, a sense of defeat and a closet
full of clothes of various sizes. At 5-foot-4, she weighs
about 190, more than 50 pounds above her desired weight.
Her biggest challenge in sticking with an exercise plan? Staying motivated after she fails to perfectly adhere to a diet and exercise plan.
"I can't seem to move beyond this all-or-nothing thinking," said Oltmann, 55, of Snellville, one of the participants in the AJC's Healthy Resolutions lifestyle challenge (see their blogs).
Oltmann could be a textbook case in weight-loss efforts, experts said. While millions of people want to lose weight and sincerely try, about four in five fail to lose weight and keep it off, studies suggest.
And a recent poll of 501 Georgia residents conducted for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found similar results: 20 percent said they had dieted seven times or more and had failed to meet their target weights; 12 percent said they had tried between three and six times and failed; and another 20 percent had tried once or twice and had not succeeded.
Given the failure and frustration rates, researchers and doctors have begun suggesting a softer, and some say more realistic, approach to weight loss.
One of the biggest reasons people fail to reach goal is that they have unclear and unrealistic goals, and fail to understand how difficult it is to form new habits and break old ones.
"You're facing multiple issues," said Martin Binks, health psychology director at the Duke Diet and Fitness Center in Durham, N.C. "When a habit becomes so automatic, it's really difficult to break."
Ease up on yourself
It's also very difficult to form new habits, such as starting an exercise plan, Binks said. People who are trying to lose weight are often trying to break and make habits, which increases the pressure — and expectations.
"Habits are learned, and often they represent very old learning," Binks said. "The expectation is that if people are ready to change behavior, they will. But it's not that easy."
Even when we have the best of intentions, obstacles emerge that can interfere. Those might be an illness, a deadline at work, or an unexpected emergency.
It is only human nature for our bodies to want to revert to old habits when we are exposed to stress, Binks said.
Oltmann said that often has happened with her.
"I just want to give up because it isn't perfect," she said. "I guess I'm just a perfectionist. I demand too much."
An antidote to the all-or-nothing thinking is to foster a more forgiving attitude. But it's also important, experts said, to counter the negativity by setting goals early in the weight loss phase.
With good goal-setting, people trying to lose weight can hold tight to the vision of the new goal rather than the perceived failure in missing an intermediate step along the way. So, if a person misses two days of exercise, the person stops that slide and resumes the exercise, rather than tossing the whole program. That's easier to do when a person has set realistic goals from the outset, Binks said.
Dr. Suzanne Phelan, a professor of psychiatry at Brown University who recently presented a paper on the habits of people who lose weight and keep it off, said an important way to stay motivated involves another kind of front-end work.
Plan for success
In addition to setting short-term, achievable goals, people need to structure their environment for success — from the beginning.
It's important to tell friends and family of your weight loss efforts, Phelan said, and also to toss high-calorie or tempting foods from the pantry and refrigerator.
At work, stay away from the table with the sweets. Bring healthful snacks so you can avoid the vending machines.
Chris Andrus, another of the AJC's Healthy Resolutions participants, lost about 30 pounds through major lifestyle changes. A competitive athlete, he now exercises several hours a day and carefully balances his diet. He is a fitness coach and works with more than a dozen clients. He advises people to make out a weekly schedule for their workouts and also a weekly meal plan.
"Every week, I plan what I'm going to eat, and when I'm going to exercise," Andrus said. "Otherwise, it would just never get done."
Having a schedule or plan helps because it serves as a guide and provides a measure of comfort, Binks said.
"It doesn't have to consume your life, but it does give you something to go back to," Binks said.
If all the lifestyle changes seemdaunting, rest assured that they gets easier with time.
In the meantime, be gentle on yourself, experts said. Learning new health habits is hard.
"There's a reason that the programs dealing with addiction talk about doing things one day at a time," said Binks. "If you have only one version of how to get healthy, you're doomed to fail."
TIPS TO STAY MOTIVATED
• Before you begin, set short-term and long-term realistic goals. Most of us aren't going to fit into the bathing suit we wore as 15-year-olds. We can, however, achieve a 10-percent weight loss, and then another 10-percent weight loss, and so on.
• Get support from family and friends. Tell them you will be making a few changes, and that you're going to need their help.
• Keep tempting food out of your house. You'll be far less likely to cave in to the call of sweets or snacks if they are not around.
• Eat a healthy breakfast. Experts think breakfast helps keep people from caving in to morning snacks — and maybe even snacks throughout the day.
• Don't skip meals. Many people think that skipping a meal will save a few calories. It doesn't. Skipping a meal slows metabolism, which means calories are burned more slowly. Also, it increases the likelihood of a pigout later, because a person becomes so hungry from having skipped a meal.
• Avoid a deprivation mentality. If you tell yourself you can never have potato chips or chocolate again, your mind often will crave them even more. Instead, tell yourself you can have desired items occasionally, and in moderation.
• Think long-term. Most people who put on unwanted weight did so gradually. Taking it off is a gradual process, too.
• Be gentle. Change the messages you tell yourself for being human. Instead of saying "I'm a dimwitted slob with no willpower," remind yourself: "I'm working to make a major lifestyle change that is really hard. I may not be perfect, but I'm working hard. I'm going to give myself some credit for that."
• Get your health-care provider on board. Ask him or her if you can call for advice or help when you need it.
• Reward yourself short-term and long-term. Consider how difficult the challenge is when trying to decide an appropriate reward. Maybe it will take the form of a long bubble bath or a Sunday matinee. Or maybe you'll take the money you saved on ice cream or doughnuts and spend it on a facial or massage. Think of things that will feed your soul instead of your stomach.
• Re-assess your goals and how you are doing — and feeling. Are you depriving yourself of too many things that matter to you? Then cut back. You can't clear out all your food vices at once, and you can't run a marathon after one month into an exercise program. If your program is feeling too hard for you, change a few things.
• Make de-stressing part of your routine, and consider adding a spiritual component. If you are a religious person, use your prayer life, or meditate. Schedule quiet time for yourself each day.
Source:www.ajc.com
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