5 Key Elements to Successful Weight Loss part 2

As i said yesterday - I have found that there must be 5 key elements in any weight loss plan, whether you use supplements, gyms, pills or diet:

1. Drink water
2. Activity
3. Food
4. Mind set
5. Support

I covered drinking water and moving more (or "exercise") yesterday in more detail.

3. Food - you need to be eating regularly, forget skipping breakfast or other meals to make up for eating too much.  What this does is actually slow down your metabolism and you don't lose weight...sometimes you even put more weight on.  
The body thinks that it will not be having any food soon- so converts as much of the previous meal into body fat to store as energy reserves to get you through this time- this is a primal response as much as you cannot control the "fight or flight" reaction of the body you cannot control this.  
So to make sure your body does not do this- feed it regularly- have breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, evening meal, supper.  The three main meals are normal size and the other meals are snack size.  
Try to reduce your fat, salt & alcohol intake where you can - I will cover this in later posts, it's best to eat to the healthy food guidelines which recommend 5 serves of vegetables and two serves of fruit a day. 
 
4. Mind Set-what I mean by this- is that you need to be in a positive frame of mind to help in your weight loss journey.  This may mean that you need to build up your own self esteem and confidence before you can even consider losing weight.  Unfortunately there are many different reasons why people, women in particular, have low self esteem- I will cover some strategies in later posts to help you feel better about yourself. 
So you need to believe that you can do it ( & let's face it...you can!).  You can see many people that have successfully lost weight and of course that means that you are able to do it too.

5. Support- you need to have a great support network, it helps if you can talk to other like minded people (email, facebook, telephone,sms) - but try not to listen to well meaning friends and relatives- they can often be bad for your weight loss progress.  They are not in the same mind set- it doesn't matter what others think- you can do it....but you have to believe in yourself.  
If you are able to connect with like minded people, great- if you cannot don't worry - the most important person to support you should be yourself.  You deserve it!

Set up some rewards for when you reach some weight loss milestones (eg: when you have lost your first 10 lbs) - but make sure it is not a food reward- make it something that means something to you- like a massage or a new book, or some new clothes or some new music, something for the garden...you get the idea!!

Have a great day, evening & see you tomorrow!!