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All the Ways to Be Intentional About Your Weight Loss Goals

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Losing those 20 pounds that have crept up over the last 10 years in a way that gets you back into that bikini you wore on your honeymoon isn’t something that just happens. Your second honeymoon is fast approaching, and those two pieces of strawberry red fabric are the key to reliving waves around your ankles and the rough palm of your new husband’s hand holding yours. So how do you get from the one piece mom suit to the bikini? Be intentional about your weight loss.

Intentional weight loss isn’t something that just comes in a bottle or a smoothie. There is a lot of tracking and awareness of how many McDonald’s fries are creeping into your food choices. There is so much water you feel like you could float across the Atlantic to England. There is also the scale. It sits on your bathroom floor staring at you like that furnace in Home Alone. You can feel the tension in the air as it invites you to step on. You put one foot in front of the other on the cool glass, stand up straight, and stare right at the towel rack, trying not to breathe. You stand for what feels like half your morning before you here that beep. “Beep, beep,” it says. “Let me show you the number,” it says. You take a deep breath before looking between your feet at the glowing red numbers.

What the number is, be it higher or lower than last time, is the tool you need to lose that baby weight we never seem to have time to banish in the midst of changing dirty diapers, packing lunches, looking for lost shoes, and realizing you only have one sock on yourself as you usher kids out the door. The number itself isn’t relevant. It is the change in the number from one day to the next that matters. If the scale goes up, it shows that stop at Baskin Robbins last night. If it goes down, it validates the zoodles you ate with your pasta sauce while everyone else is eating pasta. It’s the small successes or indulgences every day that add up to long term sustainable weight loss. Here are the best ways to be intentional with your weight loss.

Write it down!

Numero Uno will always be tracking. It’s similar to the charting I do as a nurse. If you don’t chart it, it didn’t happen in the medical world. In eating, it did happen, and it added to your daily energy intake (i.e. calorie consumption), but you may not remember it, so it is a silent weight that is holding you back.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t eat that biscotti you got with your morning coffee. Just record it. Change can’t happen if you don’t see the strong and the weak points in your day, and tracking it is the only way to see that.

Use the Scale

The scale is your second form of intentionality. We talked about it a little bit above, but its a really important tool for intentionality. You can track until you are so tired of calories and that darn notebook and that one pen that seems the only one you can ever find, but if you don’t have a way to measure what’s working and what isn’t, it doesn’t do a lot of good.

Now, you are standing in front of your scale, shivering in your undies, wondering how much this piece of metal and plastic and glass is going to invade your life. It’s up to you. So many people have their opinions, but I find I get the most use out of weighing myself daily. It sets the tone for my day. If you are more comfortable with weekly, go for it. See what works for you and your life. This is a tool, not a prison term.

Water, Water, and More Water

Every weight loss resource you have ever read has harped on drinking water, am I right? So here I am, harping on it too. Know why? Because it works. Water intake effects every system we have, and best yet, it helps shed pounds. Our bodies are super amazing at holding on to resources in case the BIG FAMINE hits the world. To get it to release its death grip on water weight, you have to talk it out of the famine mentality. Water goes a long way in that direction. It tells your body “hey, I’m here now.” Let go of that old stuff and let me in!” Your body will sigh in relief and the water retention that has been hanging out and vexing your scale will begin to receed.

Food and the BIG FAMINE

Water isnt the only thing your body hangs on to. Fat cells are the favorite target of the reptile part of your brain. To convince it to shrink that cellulite on our butts, we have to eat. Good food in decent proportions is the “no famine here” sign you need. If you don’t consume enough calories, your body won’t give up any weight.

You probably know all of this, but the other side of the sign is less well known. Fast food will not prevent the famine settin on your metabolism. Yes, it is food, and plenty of calories.  It is also plenty of fat and grease and salt. It tastes great but it is conterproductive because every fat cell that shrinks is refilled with the burger you just ate.  Even worse, the salt keeps the water hanging out. That double patty burger is a double whammy on your waistline.

Don’t Beat Yourself Up

The thing about life is it has a way of messing up your plans. The minute you think you have given up fast food forever, you are running late for soccer practice, the two year old is screaming because he thinks he is starving, and that drive thru is the quickest option. You get a burger because who can eat a salad and drive? It’s okay. Not every day will be amazing. Love yourself anyway. Accept that it happened and move on. Yes, it might end up showing up as a pound or two on the scale, but unless you are eating that every meal, one fast food stop won’t ruin all your progress. The next morning, make your oatmeal with fruit and keep heading where you want to go.

Conclusion

Intentional weight loss is such a work in progress. Every day will bring new challenges and new opportunities. Pre-game your meals and try to avoid the pitfalls, but understand it will never be perfect. That’s okay. If you focus on perfection, you will fall short. That’s life. Aim for doing your best and then doing everything you can to be your best self, and you will make it where you want to go faster than you thought you could.

7 More Things No One Tells You About Weight Loss

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So many things to learn to lose weight, and so little time to learn it, am I right? I have spent the last year learning, experimenting, and failing. Yes, failing. This journey we have undertaken will not be without its flaws, but each failure will help us learn and grow. I want to share 7 more things no one told me about weight loss. I learned every one on my own, and I want to share them with you. If you haven’t read the first installment of this list, you can go back and read it here.

1. You Will Wear Leggings

Ah, leggings. The pants that aren’t really pants. They are stretchy and comfy and don’t carry the same stigma as hose or sweat pants. They are about to become your best friend. As your weight loss progresses, your pants will lose their ability to not fall off your butt. That’s a great thing! Celebrate it. You can buy new pants every time you go down a size, but I prefer to not buy enough new stuff to cover all the days pf the week. That would get expensive as your journey continues. We are going to lose enough weight that rebuying your wardrobe will stress your wallet. Just break out the leggings and keep on changing your life without the expense of new clothes several times.

2. You Will Need Those Leggings Before You See a Visible Change in Your Body

When I first started this journey, I thought it would take a long time to change clothing sizes. It took fifteen pounds. I couldn’t see that change thanks to how high my weight was, but I could feel it in my clothes. Shirts that fit a month before became almost baggy. My pants were barely hanging in there without a belt. I went and looked in the mirror, expecting to see a difference in my body. Nope. Nothing. It wasn’t until I lost another 5 pounds that my face started looking thinner and my calves had a tiny bit of definition.

3. Not Everyone Will Notice

There are some people that even after you lose 100 pounds won’t say a word. It isn’t always clear whether they are just oblivious or are just not saying anything. We are built to want recognition for our good work so it can be a hit to your confidence if they don’t say anything. This is another good place to remember not only all the things you’ve noticed, but also the good things everyone else has said.

4. Not Everyone Will Be Happy For You

Jealously is a green-eyed beast, and that beast can overtake people you won’t expect. It could be your best friend, your coworker, or even your neighbor. It takes two different forms too. One is the person who has obvious distain for everything you are doing to better your life. The second, more common one, is the secret saboteur. This is the person that offers you cookies or makes veiled comments about your eating habits. They are the more dangerous of the two types since they are more likely to talk you in to “just one cookie” or “just one slice of pizza”. They are also more likely to bring the birthday cake to your office birthday party even though you’ve requested a fruit or veggie tray.

5. Exercise Can Cause a Weight Loss Stall-Out

Have you ever spent a lot of time lifting weights or doing other activities that build muscle? As you put on muscle, your weight will most likely stall as far as the scale goes. In college I spent some time with a physical trainer. I only lost two pounds, but I also lost inches and increased my endurance and stamina. Even now, if I spend a little time working out, my weight loss slows down. This is where NSV (non-scale victories) come in to play. The scale can be a useful tool, but it is not the last word in improving your health and your life. Celebrating other small moments that prove your changes are making a difference (needing to wear leggings or buy new pants are big ones) can help you step away from the scale not feeling like it kicked you just by not moving.

6. You Will Try Several Different Methods

People are more interested in variety than in the repetitive. Our generation has the added need for instant gratification. Thanks, Google and Amazon. Once we have the initial rush of a quick weight loss and things slow down, we start looking for the next rush. I bet you’ve tried every quick weight loss plan out there, am I right? So have I. I have tried no bread, Weight Watchers, just tracking calories, fat burning exercise programs, and no processed sugar. I’ve also tried intermittent fasting, not eating anything after 7 pm, diet pills, weight loss shakes, and just eating smaller portions. All have their varied successes and failures. Trying different plans can help you whittle down what works with your time, personality, and tastes. Cutting portion sizes and drinking water before every meal have been much more successful for me than other plans. You will find the one or combo of more than one that works best for you as you experiment.

The other thing that I do want to talk about is yo-yo dieting. We’ve all done that too I’m sure. Yo-Yo dieting isn’t the same as trying different plans for changing your habits. Yo-Yo diets are the ultimate instant gratification version of dieting. Like a lot of other instant gratification experiences, the novelty quickly fades, you give up on the all juice diet or the diet pills, and you are right back where you started. A lot of times you end up worse off than before as your body starts hoarding the calories again in case another “famine” (i.e. yo-yo diet) comes along.

7. It Will Never Be Easy

You are starting out on a lifelong journey. Every journey has pot holes and pit falls and hard spots. The birthday cake will always be around to temp you. The concession snacks at your son’s basketball game will be right in your line of sight. We can’t move ourselves into a vacuum of healthy food and lack of bad choices. Complacency will be your worse enemy. That doesn’t mean you won’t win the war. You can. Just be ready to fight the battles along the way and to give yourself grace when you hit one of those pot holes.

Conclusion

There are so many things to thing about when managing weight loss. I like to say that there are a lot of moving parts. You will feel overwhelmed at times, but you can totally do this! The key to making it is to just not stop. I love this Rodney Atkins song that reminds us to just keep going and you might just make it out before the devil even knows you are there. That is an image that sticks, and one I come back to in the dark moments where a donut is calling my name and the scale isn’t moving and dammit, I just do not want to go to the gym again. Please keep going. I’m here to help you get through to that other side.