In a previous blog post, I talked about the importance of eating breakfast. You know this anyway – your mother probably told you the same thing. It helps with weight loss efforts by fueling your body and lessening the chance of overeating later in the day.

But what if you aren’t a “breakfast” person. What can you eat to get a good serving of protein to start your day right? Here’s some suggestions:

• Peanut butter
• Yogurt
• Low Fat Milk
• Low Fat Cheese
• Turkey Bacon
• Sliced Turkey
• Beans
• Nuts

Some of these may not be “traditional” breakfast foods, but are still great protein sources to start your day with. Combine any of these with whole grains and fruit to start your day right.

What can you add to the list? What protein source do you prefer for breakfast?

Recent studies have found that overweight people blame a character flaw within themselves for not losing weight, but think that daily life events and pressures are keeping them from doing the things they should to lose weight. At the same time, they keep looking for the technological advance or new “best” program that will be the answer. Most weight loss programs seem to have a rigid, all or nothing philosophy that is very difficult to stick to in real life, and which causes a great deal of self-blaming when failure occurs.

Here are 3 steps to change your thought processes and allow you to take a different and more successful approach to weight loss:

1. Reject the prevailing all or nothing philosophy that too often leads to nothing
2. Recognize that you cannot go it alone; seek effective resources to help you
3. Create a healthy vision for yourself, and establish goals to achieve that future vision

Step 1: Reject all or nothing approaches

Studies show that people with a greater sense of dietary restraint (the ability to consciously control food intake) are more likely to lose weight than those who tend to overeat more frequently, eat fast, and give a higher rating to their perceived hunger. Makes sense. Some researchers believe that strict diets make people more likely to lose control of their eating, leading to more overeating episodes and self-blame. They suggest a system called flexible control, in which you make healthy choices 80% of the time, and leave 20% open for intentional treats and unintended slips. The keys are to give yourself guilt-free permission to have some controlled treats as part of the weight loss program and to have a plan for recovery from slip ups that includes letting go of the slip and not beating yourself about it. Just move on.

Step 2: Seek help from yourself and others

First, restructure your own self-image and self-talk to be more positive and supporting. Praise yourself for small victories, look on the bright side, learn from failures and move on.

Second, develop a supportive network. Divide the people you know into 3 categories: supporters, indifferents, and saboteurs. Try to spend more time with supporters, who will help you achieve your goal. Indifferents won’t help or hurt, so you can be indifferent as to whether you spend time with them or not. Saboteurs will hurt your efforts, so you must minimize time spent with those who are not close friends or family, and you must develop a plan to deal with those who are close to you, since you have to spend time with them.

Third, seek professional help as needed. It may be a Dietitian or personal trainer, or it may be a psychologist or social worker. Identify what your needs are and find the right person to help meet them.

Step 3: Develop a compelling and meaningful vision for yourself that includes your health

Describe who you want to be in the future and how you want to feel. Then you must figure out how you will grow into this vision. Set SMART goals to get there a step at a time. SMART means specific, measurable, achievable, rewarding, and time-based. It is important to do this well, since the vision is a long-range process and you have to see progress on the way or you begin to lose faith and interest. One of my favorite song lyrics is from Harry Chapin, who says “It’s got to be the going, not the getting there, that’s good.”

Try out this new way of looking at weight loss. Chances are you have nothing to lose – except weight.

Our bodies are programmed to handle stress by the release of certain hormones. What the body doesn’t know is whether the stress is from a wild animal chasing us (when we need those hormones to get away) or from a stack of unpaid bills. These hormones trigger hunger signals, especially for sugar, so we can feed our bodies to prepare to fight or flee. That’s why you might crave a large bag of potato chips when under a lot of stress. So you eat more calories than you need.

Also, the body releases cortisol during times of stress, which can slow metabolism. Even if you are eating and exercising the same as always, you may find you are putting on a few pounds….and taking them off can be harder.

What to do? The best thing is to try to reduce the stress and relax. Easier said than done. Here are some things to try:

Exercise – acts as a stress-buster, burns calories and produces hormones to counter stress hormones. Choose an activity that you really enjoy, and only do for a length of time that doesn’t exhaust you.

Eat a balanced diet, and don’t skip meals, even if trying to lose weight. Try eating several small meals throughout the day rather than 3 big ones.

Get enough sleep and devote time to relaxation.

Avoid caffeine, tobacco and alcohol.

Stress is a part of our life. While we can’t make it go away, learning to manage it can keep unwanted weight off and make weight loss efforts more effective.

At Healthy Habits Fitness, we want to help you create healthy habits in your life. This includes healthy eating habits to help you lose and maintain weight loss. But digging through previous blog posts can take a lot of time. So here is a round-up of some earlier blog posts on weight loss. Hope you find them helpful!

A Bit About Breakfast

Which Calorie Cutting Method Is Best For Weight Loss

Top 10 Supermarket Foods To Avoid

Are Energy Drinks A Good Weight Loss Option

Can Energy Bars Help You Lose Weight?

Metabolism And Weight Loss