In my last post I talked about motivation, the driving force behind any behavior change.  In the next few posts, I’ll focus on putting together your weight loss plan.  That will include:

1. Setting your goals & start date
2. Identifying a support person
3. Barriers to starting your plan & solutions to overcome them
4. Planning for the challenges that will come
5. Milestones and rewards

In this post let’s consider setting your goal, planning your start date and the importance of identifying a support person.  Your goal is the weight you want to be or the pounds you intend to lose by your target date.  Both the weight loss and target date need to be realistic.  A healthy rate of weight loss is 1.5 to 2.5 lbs. per week.  If you have medical issues, you should check with your doctor about your plan, especially about how quickly you plan to lose weight, the nutrition plan you will be using and details of your exercise plan.  Too rapid a weight loss can be unhealthy especially if you have certain medical conditions.  It took time to gain those extra pounds and it will take time to lose them.  Be patient!  Remember slow and steady wins the race!

You should also choose a start date to begin your weight loss program.  Give yourself some time to go through the planning stage for your program.  It shouldn’t take more than 2-3 weeks to get the planning done.

Finally, choose a trusted friend with whom to share your plan.  Tell them your start date, goal weight loss and target date.  Their role is to help encourage you when you feel discouraged and celebrate your successes with you.  Some people choose someone who has successfully lost weight themselves.  While that experience isn’t necessary, the strategies they used to overcome challenges can be useful.

Next time, I’ll continue talking about the other parts of your weight loss plan that you may wish to consider before you actually start your weight loss program.  If you want to get a head start on those topics, check out my website www.insightsforhealth.com where there are tools to Make Your Plan as well as many other features to learn about nutrition & exercise.  You’ll also find tools to calculate the nutritional content in foods, find the calories expended with common activities and to set up Health-e Texts to reinforce your new healthier behaviors.  To use some of these you must register as a member, but membership is free!

Your comments are welcome.

For Your Health! – Dr. Bob

I Need Your Help

In designing a weight loss program, building in motivating factors and supportive tools is especially important.  If you are currently struggling with or have ever struggled with your weight, I’d like your opinion.  Please fill out the following brief survey to help prioritize the key drivers that would motivate & help you to adopt healthier nutrition and exercise behaviors that will lead to a healthier weight.

Survey Instructions:  For each of the following 6 potential components of a Weight Loss Program, please rank their importance to you on a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 indicates Least Important & 5 indicates Most Important.

What Do You Need To Lose Weight?

Macronutrients – Carbohydrates, Fats & Protein

When trying to eat healthier as part of your weight loss plan, you need to learn the basics of nutrition.  I’ll spend the next few posts covering those basics or you could click here to be taken to the www.InsightsForHealth.com Learning Center Module on Nutrition.

Nutritionists often refer to carbohydrates, fats and proteins as  macronutrients and vitamins and minerals as  micronutrients. We require a relatively small amount of the micronutrients, and they have no caloric content. The macronutrients do have a caloric content with fats having the highest caloric density. So, of the three, fat is the most efficient storehouse for energy.

Carbohydrates are classified as simple or complex. The simple sugars are smaller and include glucose and fructose. Since they are smaller molecules they get absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract very quickly. Glucose is the only source of energy used by the brain, so the body has several mechanisms to convert the other macronutrients into glucose if the glucose level is running low. Complex carbohydrates are actually simple carbohydrates linked together. They include corn, beans, root vegetables (potatoes), pasta & grains. Because they are larger, extracting energy from them takes a bit longer than from simple carbohydrates, but it is still relatively rapid. The body stores only about one day’s worth of energy as carbohydrate in the form of glycogen in the liver and muscle.

In the next post I’ll talk about fats.  Meanwhile, you can check out this information and more at www.InsightsForHealth.com.

I’ll look forward to any comments you may wish to leave..

For Your Health – Dr. Bob

In addition to defining your goal and goal date, you should understand your motivation for making these changes.  Is it for your health?  Is it to better enjoy life with your family?  Is it to get into that bathing suit this summer?  Whatever it is, you should write it down and look at it frequently as you implement your Behavior Change Plan.

Please share some comments and motivations to change that you found effective in your own life.

Dr. Bob