SECRETS OF WEIGHT LOSS By Narina Minassian and Elaine Miller
Š 2010, Elaine Miller and Narina Minassian. All rights reserved.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Why We Wrote This Book
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Diets Don’t Work
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21 Secret Weight Loss Strategies
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The Ultimate Strategy Strategy #1: Have a Positive Attitude
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Nutrition Strategies Strategy #2: Track Calories
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Strategy #3: Identify Emotional Triggers
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Strategy #4: Eat More Often
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Strategy #5: Control Portions
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Strategy #6: Balance Fat, Proteins and Carbs
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Strategy #7: Eat Snacks, Not Treats
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Strategy #8: Eat Breakfast
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Strategy #9: Eat a Variety of Whole Foods
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Strategy #10: Eat Food, Not Pills
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Strategy #11: Drink More Water (& Less of Everything Else)
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Strategy #12 Limit Alcohol
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Strategy #13 Forbid Nothing
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Strategy #14 Slow Down
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Exercise Strategies Strategy #15: Burn Calories with Cardio
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Strategy #16: Raise Your Metabolism with Strength Training
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Strategy #17: Mix It Up
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Strategy #18: Increase Your Flexibility
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Lifestyle Strategies Strategy #19: Rest and Sleep
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Strategy #20: Focus on Long-Term Health
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Strategy #21: Surround Yourself With Support
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Summary
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Why We Wrote This Book It’s simple. We want you to finally get the weight loss results you’ve been looking for. We see too many people who are discouraged and frustrated after years of dieting and exercising without ever reaching their ultimate weight loss goals. If this sounds like you, then this book was written with you in mind. Once you begin implementing the strategies outlined in this book, you’ll be on your way to a healthy and stable weight that you can maintain forever. If you’re like many of the people we see every day, you’ve had some success with weight loss, maybe even a lot of success. But, you’ve also gained back some, most, or perhaps even all of the weight you’ve lost. With each failed attempt you lose the confidence and hope that you’ll ever reach your ideal weight. We wrote this book to give you hope again. Healthy, natural and permanent weight loss IS possible. It does take effort, dedication and commitment, but it is not as complicated as you may have been led to believe. And you do not need to resort to expensive pills, dangerous fad diets, or dubious gadgets. Follow the strategies in this book, and regain your confidence and your power. You do have control over your body, and if you stay on track, stay positive and stay patient, you will finally arrive at your goal weight.
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We are also available to help you in person. Our gift to you for taking the time to read our book is a two-day guest pass to our one-of-a-kind program. All About You! Wellness BootCamp (AAY!) is a holistic fitness and nutrition program where you get the attention of a personal trainer, the expertise of a nutritionist and the motivation of a group. Our exercise programs are designed systematically to give your body everything it needs to get in shape safely and effectively: cardiovascular exercise, strength training, balance training, coordination exercises, power training, endurance, flexibility and so much more. Every week of the year you’ll experience completely new exercises, so you’ll never be bored and you will constantly look forward to new challenges. At the same time, you get access to our unique nutrition program, including a complete nutrition plan, access to our online nutrition system and nutritional guidance supervised by our nutritionist, Narina Minassian. To receive your two-day guest pass, just contact us through the website listed below and mention that you read our book. We believe in you and we know you have the power to change your life for the better. Starting today. With love and compassion, we wish you all the best. Narina Minassian, M.S., Nutritionist, Certified Fitness Trainer Elaine Miller, B.A., Certified Fitness Trainer www.AAYBootCamp.com 818-437-5523 5
DIETS DON’T WORK You know they don’t work. You’ve tried one after another, and although you’ve lost weight, they’ve all left you feeling tired, deprived and frustrated. You might even feel like a failure because you were not able to stick to the diet. Or, once you lost the weight and went off the diet, you gained all the weight back…and more. Our message to you is that you are NOT a failure. Your diet failed. YOU did not fail. There is hope for you! We’ve worked with people just like you for many years and have helped hundreds of people regain their health, vitality and selfconfidence as they’ve lost weight by incorporating the strategies that we present in this book. Diets don’t work because they are not realistic and cannot be adhered to on a permanent basis. Our bodies are designed to gain weight, not to lose weight. It’s survival, and it has worked well for humans for hundreds of thousands of years. It is only very recently that weight gain has become a problem due to our modern lifestyle. When you severely restrict calories, your body goes into survival mode. Your metabolism starts to slow down in order to conserve energy and sustain life. This, of course, makes it harder to lose weight. Your body wants to hold onto your fat to sustain your life! When your calorie intake is too low, your body starts drawing the energy not only from your fat stores, but also from muscle. 6
Since muscle weighs more than fat, your scale will say you’ve lost plenty of weight, but this is nothing to celebrate. Losing muscle is actually counterproductive to your ultimate weight loss efforts. Muscle is biologically active tissue that uses many more calories than fat. Your muscle is what keeps the furnace of your metabolism going strong. When you start to lose muscle, your metabolism slows down even more, which means you burn fewer calories each and every day. No wonder each diet seems harder than the last one! You may feel fine for the first few weeks of your diet, but after a while you lose energy and start going crazy with intense cravings. Again, it’s the diet that fails. Not you! Remember, if anyone ever tells you that losing weight will be easy, you know it’s a lie. There is no magic pill, fantastic formula or incredible machine that will make weight loss fast or easy. However, there is a solution to safe and permanent weight loss. We can help you get there. Learn the strategies presented in this book and incorporate them into your daily life. Stay focused and committed. Haven’t you had enough of yo-yo dieting and worrying about your weight every year? Isn’t it time to finally take it off sensibly and keep it off for the rest of your life?
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THE 21 SECRET STRATEGIES OF HEALTHY, PERMANENT WEIGHT LOSS Why so secret? The secret is that the multi-billion dollar diet industry does not want you to know how simple and straightforward these strategies are. They want you to feel discouraged and hopeless so that you continue pouring money down the drain (and into their pockets) as you search for the magic formula. Well, here it is, and it’s not costing you a cent. We make this ebook available to you for free because our mission is to help as many people as possible achieve a healthy & stable weight for the rest of their lives. And today is the first day of the rest of your life. Read on!
The Ultimate Strategy STRATEGY #1: HAVE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE The most important tool on your weight loss journey is a positive attitude. As you already know, weight loss is not a quick or easy process. If you expect fast results, you will get frustrated and discouraged long before you reach your goal. Weight loss is about changing your lifestyle and about making healthier choices on a daily basis. It’s important to think of weight loss as a long-term goal. 8
The ideal rate of weight loss is one pound per week. This is the rate at which weight loss is safe, effective and long lasting. So, if you want to lose 50 pounds, plan on a full year to achieve your goal. Losing weight slowly may feel frustrating. You may even step on the scale one day and see that you’ve gained a pound or two. The body naturally fluctuates up and down several pounds. You cannot let this discourage you. You need to be patient and have confidence that adhering to your healthy habits will eventually lead to the weight loss you desire. You also have to accept that you will not be perfect. Nobody is. It takes time to adjust to a new lifestyle. It’s ok to slip up, as long as you get back on track within a day or two. Don’t let one slip-up lead to a week, or a month, of binge eating. Do not give up after all your hard work and end up back where you started. Having a positive and optimistic attitude is essential if you want to finally reach your ultimate weight loss goal and maintain that goal for the rest of your life.
Nutrition Strategies STRATEGY #2: TRACK CALORIES The only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you consume. That’s all there is to it! Burn more calories than you 9
consume and you will definitely lose weight. But, as you learned earlier, to ensure that you lose fat and not muscle, you also need to make sure you are eating above a minimum number of calories. Too few calories can lead to as much damage as too many calories. Here’s the simple math of weight loss: One pound of fat contains 3,500 calories. In order to lose one pound of fat, you need to burn 3,500 more calories than you consume. 500 calories x 7 days = 3,500 calories. That’s why we recommend one pound of weight loss per week. The first step is to figure out how many calories you should be consuming. Each person is unique and requires a specific number of calories to maintain or lose weight. This number is based on a variety of factors, including your age, gender, weight, height and activity level. An easy way to determine your ideal calorie range is to use our AAY! Online Nutrition Program. Just plug in the required information to get your recommended daily calorie range. Because we truly want you to lose weight, we will give you free access to our Online Program for seven days. Just email or call us, let us know you read our e-book, and we’ll give you a personal access code. Check out a free demonstration of the program here: http://aaybootcamp.vitabot.com/login/aaybootcamp.html
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STRATEGY #3: IDENTIFY EMOTIONAL TRIGGERS Of course, even if you know exactly how many calories you should be consuming per day, it may be extremely challenging for you to stay within your calorie range. Many of the strategies listed in this book will help you reduce the number of calories you consume. However, if you are an emotional eater, all the strategies in the world won’t help you until you take an honest look at yourself, identify your emotional triggers, and learn to deal with them in ways other than eating. What causes you to overeat? Stress, boredom, loneliness, anger, depression, excitement? To find out, we recommend that you keep an emotional eating journal. When you realize you are overeating, take out your journal and write about the feelings you are experiencing. After several weeks, you’ll have a very clear picture of what types of situations and emotions cause you to overeat. Next, think about what you can do in place of eating that would comfort you in those situations. How about calling a good friend, taking a hot bath, treating yourself to a massage or pedicure, reading a good book, or simply writing in your journal to express your feelings? If you find that your emotional triggers are too deep or painful for you to handle on your own, it’s important to seek professional help from a licensed counselor or therapist. Working through these issues can turn your life around. 11
If you know you are overeating to avoid painful feelings, memories or situations, you will not be able to reach your weight loss goals until you commit to dealing with these issues. We urge you to do it now as part of your weight loss journey. STRATEGY #4: EAT MORE OFTEN It may sound strange, but eating more frequently throughout the day can actually help you lose weight. The key is to choose the right foods and eat them in the correct portions. We recommend that you eat five or six times throughout the day: breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. By eating more often, you are continually providing your body with the fuel it needs for all its activities and daily functions. It keeps your blood sugar balanced and your energy even so that you can be more active and clear-headed throughout the day. In addition, each time you eat, your body has to work hard to digest the food. This actually burns more calories and increases your metabolism. Finally, eating throughout the day helps you stay satisfied, reducing cravings and preventing overeating.
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STRATEGY #5: CONTROL PORTIONS Because you’ll be eating often throughout the day, it’s important to limit your portions. It’s very easy to overeat if you don’t pay close attention to your portions. Weighing, measuring or counting out your food, especially in the beginning, can be very helpful in training you to recognize proper portions. Here are some good ways to control your portions: • Buy food in small packages. Or, if you purchase a big package, use small snack bags to divide the food up into one-serving portions. Never eat straight from a large bag or container. • Use small plates, bowls and utensils. You’ll be surprised what a big difference it makes. • Eat slowly, chew well and savor the flavors. • Sit at a table and focus on your food. Do not eat mindlessly in front of the television. • At restaurants: eat half a portion. Take the other half home or share it with a friend. STRATEGY #6: BALANCE FAT, PROTEIN & CARBS Many diets urge you to cut out or cut down on one of the macronutrients: carbohydrates, fat or protein. However, our body needs all three macronutrients to function effectively. By combining fat, protein and carbs in every meal and snack, you will be more satisfied, will get a wider range of nutrients, and will keep your blood sugar well-balanced. 13
The best carbohydrates to choose are vegetables, fruits and whole grains. The best fats to choose are unsaturated: nuts, seeds, avocadoes, fish. The best proteins to choose are lean: poultry, fish, nonfat or low-fat dairy, egg whites, lean beef. STRATEGY #7: EAT SNACKS, NOT TREATS We get funny looks from people when we tell them to eat three snacks a day. They ask, “How can I lose weight if I eat that many snacks?” Of course, the type and size of snack you choose to eat is what counts. When we say “snack” we mean a healthy combination of carbohydrate, protein and fat. For a mid-morning snack we recommend fruit and protein, such as apple + light string cheese or blueberries + low-fat cottage cheese or two apricots + seven raw, unsalted almonds. For a mid-afternoon snack, we recommend vegetables and protein, such as carrots + almond butter or red bell pepper + hummus or egg whites + spinach. On the other hand, we recommend that you limit treats to once or twice a week, at the most. Treats include cookies, chips, soda, candy, doughnuts, cake, etc. We do not recommend that you completely deprive yourself of your favorite treats. That will only make you crave them more. However, it’s important to plan in advance when you will treat 14
yourself and how much you will have. Then, all you have to do is follow your plan. STRATEGY #8: EAT BREAKFAST We’ve already mentioned that you should structure your eating this way: breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. But, because so many people tend to skip breakfast, we want to reemphasize the importance of eating a healthy breakfast when you wake up. Eating breakfast stokes the furnace of the metabolism so that it starts working for you throughout the day. It also sets the right tone. Feeding yourself a healthy, balanced breakfast sends your brain and body the message that you are taking good care of your health. This message will stay with you throughout the day and will help you continue to make wise decisions. Research shows that people who eat breakfast every day have an easier time maintaining a healthy weight than those who skip breakfast. STRATEGY #9: EAT A VARIETY OF WHOLE FOODS (& COOK THEM YOURSELF) When choosing your food, think about what our humans bodies were designed to eat. Does it come naturally from the earth or was it manufactured in a factory? Does it have a list of
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ingredients? (An apple is an apple, no need to read the ingredients!) If it does have ingredients, look for a short list with simple words. (If it’s a word you can’t pronounce, chances are it’s not natural and it’s not good for you!) The bulk of your diet should consist of: vegetables, fruit, whole grains, nuts and seeds. Prepare most of your food yourself in order to control the calories, saturated fat and sodium. Restaurant food will almost always be too high in all three. Variety is also important when it comes to good nutrition. If you eat the same foods every week, you may be missing important nutrients. We recommend that you purchase one new healthy food item each time you go grocery shopping. Look for vegetables, fruits and grains that you’ve never tried before, or that you haven’t eaten in a long time. This will also make it easier to adhere to your healthy eating habits since you won’t get bored. STRATEGY #10: EAT FOOD, NOT PILLS When considering whether or not to start taking a dietary supplement, it's important to remember that many of the people peddling pills may not have YOUR best interest in mind. So, be skeptical!
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Just because something comes in a nice package and sits on the shelf of a "health food" store does not mean it is necessarily good for your body. Our philosophy is that most people can get all the nutrients they need if they are very conscientious about eating a wide variety of whole foods, including vegetables, fruit, whole grains, nuts, seeds and lean protein. Rather than wasting money on expensive supplements, spend your time, money & effort on buying and preparing healthy, well-balanced meals. You can use the AAY! Online Nutrition program to ensure that you are getting all your required nutrients. Here are some interesting facts: • Federal law does not require dietary supplements to be proven safe to FDA's satisfaction before they are marketed. • For most claims made in the labeling of dietary supplements, the law does not require the manufacturer or seller to prove to FDA's satisfaction that the claim is accurate or truthful before it appears on the product. In other words, there is NO guarantee that any dietary supplement on the market is either safe or effective, no matter how compelling the advertisements seem! So how do you know whether you should be taking a specific supplement? Check as many resources as possible for information before 17
putting an unknown substance into your body! Remember that a supplement is supposed to make up for a deficiency to put your body in proper nutritional balance. Using an unnecessary supplement or using an excessive amount of a supplement may throw your body out of balance, which can lead to severe body dysfunction. Before taking any supplement, check with your healthcare provider to find out if your body really needs it and if so in what dosage. If you don’t need it, don’t waste your money. There is a place for some supplements, but to make sure your body really needs them, do your research and consult with your health care provider. STRATEGY #11: DRINK MORE WATER… AND LESS OF EVERYTHING ELSE Water is an essential component of good heath. The human body is made up of almost 75% water and almost every cell in the body needs water to function properly. Many times we mistake thirst for hunger, and we end up eating when our bodies are really only craving fluid. Staying hydrated will help you better regulate your appetite. When you exercise, you need to drink more to replenish the fluids you lose through sweat. Listen to your body to know how
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much water you need, but we recommend at least 64 ounces of water per day. Water is the ideal beverage to drink throughout the day because it is naturally calorie-free! Steer away from juice, soda, sport drinks, alcohol and high-calorie coffee drinks like lattes and mochas. Research shows that when people drink calories, they do not make up for it by eating fewer calories. Think of liquid calories as “extra calories,” which most of us cannot afford. And don’t think you can solve the problem by turning to artificially sweetened beverages! Studies have actually linked diet sodas to obesity. Because artificial sweetener is exponentially sweeter than sugar, it actually increases your sweet tooth. On top of that, there’s also a psychological issue. You order a diet soda along with something very fattening, like a chocolate shake or large fries. You feel like you’ve saved calories on the drink, so you indulge elsewhere. Wouldn’t you have been better off with water and a healthy meal? STRATEGY #12: LIMIT ALCOHOL We know you may not want to hear this. We know that it can be fun to drink with your friends, that it can be a good way to bond with others, and that drinking alcohol does have some health benefits.
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However, if you are trying to lose weight, drinking alcohol, even in moderation, can be a huge barrier to achieving your goal. Here’s why: • It adds extra calories. Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram, whereas protein and carbs each contain 4 calories per gram. (Fat has 9 calories per gram.) Simply having one beer a night adds more than 1,000 calories per week — that's an extra 15 pounds per year! A couple of glasses of wine over the course of a meal can easily add as many as 400 calories. • As noted above, studies have shown that when people drink calories (whether in the form of alcohol, soda or juice) they do not compensate by eating fewer calories. Apparently our brains don't register liquid calories like they do solid calories. • Alcohol is absorbed quickly into your bloodstream, and as a depressant, it slows down everything in your body, including your metabolism. • Alcohol raises your levels of cortisol, a hormone that appears to steer fat toward the tummy (think "beer belly")! • Alcohol lowers your inhibitions and impairs your judgment, causing you to make poor nutritional choices. • Alcohol may cause blood-sugar levels to drop more rapidly. This can stimulate your appetite and disrupt your
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ability to tell when you've had enough to eat. Additionally, this can cause fatigue, draining your energy levels. • Alcohol may also interfere with the body's absorption of certain vitamins and minerals. For all these reasons, we recommend that you greatly reduce your alcohol consumption while you are losing weight. Once you have reached your goal weight, then you can re-evaluate and decide whether or not to start to add alcohol back in. Just be sure to count the calories in the drinks as well as any additional snacks you start nibbling on! STRATEGY #13: FORBID NOTHING! If you tell yourself no more chocolate, don’t you start thinking about chocolate every day? No more French fries, and you dream about French fries at night? Your cravings increase until you finally break down and overeat until you’re sick. Rather than putting any specific food completely off limits, think of your favorite high-calorie foods as “special treats.” And make sure “special” means “rare.” You can have them when you really want them, as long as you’ve made space for the calories in your daily meal plan.
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STRATEGY #14: SLOW DOWN When you eat slower, you’ll eat less. From the time you begin eating, it takes the brain 20 minutes to start signaling feelings of fullness. If you scarf down a whole plate of food in ten minutes, you have another 10 minutes to overeat before you even start to realize you’re full! When you slow down, you’ll also enjoy your food more. Each time you sit down to a meal or snack, take a deep breath and remind yourself to chew well, and savor each tasty morsel.
Exercise Strategies STRATEGY #15: BURN CALORIES WITH CARDIO! As we mentioned in Strategy #2, the only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you consume. Our first 14 strategies focused on how to control the number of calories you consume. Now, let’s focus on burning more calories. Cardiovascular exercise is any activity that raises your heart rate over a consistent period of time. Examples include: walking, running, kickboxing, dancing, cycling, swimming. Cardiovascular exercise burns a lot of calories, so you should be doing several cardio sessions throughout the week. The most important thing is to choose an activity you enjoy. If you don’t like it, you won’t do it! 22
It’s also important that you have some variety in your program. Variety will help prevent overuse injuries, but it will also keep it fun and exciting. At All About You! Wellness BootCamp, we do a wide variety of fun cardiovascular exercises: running, obstacle courses, kickboxing, jump rope and sports such as basketball, soccer and even Frisbee. For every cardio exercise, we also give a low impact variation for those with prior injuries or limitations. This helps keep everyone healthy and injury-free throughout the weight loss process. STRATEGY #16: RAISE YOUR METABOLISM WITH STRENGTH TRAINING! Cardiovascular exercise alone is not enough to get to your weight loss goal. It is essential that you include strength training, also known as resistance training, several times a week. Strength training is so effective because you burn calories while you’re exercising, but you also continue to burn calories even after you’ve finished your workout! When you lift a weight, you create tiny tears in your muscles, which your body then needs to repair. Repairing muscle tears is hard work, and your body burns lots of extra calories to do it.
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Of course, as you build muscle, you also become more toned & firm. But the best part is that you raise your metabolism! Because muscle is biologically active tissue, it takes more calories to maintain than fat does. So, the more muscle you have on your body, the more calories you’ll burn each and every day – no matter what you’re doing. As with cardiovascular training, it’s important to do a variety of different types of strength training to avoid injury, to make progress, and to prevent boredom. At All About You! Wellness BootCamp, we do different types of strength training each week of the year. We progress you through endurance, strength, balance, coordination and power exercises with dumbbells, elastic tubing, medicine balls and even your own body weight. If you’ve never done strength training before, it’s important that you learn the correct form to make sure you don’t injure yourself, as well as to make sure you are doing the exercises effectively. It is well worth the money to invest in hiring a personal trainer for a few sessions, or to join a program such as All About You! Wellness BootCamp, where you’ll get the attention of a personal trainer at a much more reasonable price.
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STRATEGY #17: MIX IT UP Doing the same thing over & over is not only boring, it also prevents you from reaching your fitness and weight loss goals. Your body becomes accustomed to any exercise, whether it’s jogging, kickboxing or strength training, within a couple of weeks. As you become better at the exercise, your body becomes more efficient at performing each movement, and therefore you expend fewer calories! Have you ever seen someone who works out hard every day at the gym, and yet their body never seems to change or improve? Most likely, that person is stuck in a rut and is doing the same type of workout over & over. They stopped making progress years ago, but they still stick to their routine and then wonder why they’re not losing weight. At All About You! Wellness BootCamp, we don’t let that happen! Our workout programs are designed systematically to take you through a wide variety of different types of workouts. In fact, while most boot camps cycle through the same workouts every six weeks, we cycle through our programs every 52 weeks! That’s right, in one year with us you’ll be doing a different workout every single week! This is one of the reasons we see such great results with our members. The other important reason to vary your workouts is to prevent injury. By moving your body in different ways each week, you can avoid overuse injuries, which could otherwise stall your progress.
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STRATEGY #18: INCREASE YOUR FLEXIBILITY Some people are great at challenging themselves every time they work out, but they forget to also take the time to stretch. Stretching helps you maintain flexibility and range of motion in all your joints, which in turn helps prevent injuries. Why do we keep talking about injuries? Because we’ve seen too many people who are super-motivated dive into a workout program and push themselves hard every day, only to end up with an injury that sidelines them for weeks or months. By the time their body has recovered, they’ve lost their motivation and have given up on their weight loss goals. This is a heart-breaking scenario and we don’t want it to happen to you. So, please, take our injury prevention advice seriously. Before each workout, we recommend that you do a light cardiovascular warm up for about five minutes, and then take another five minutes to stretch. The best time to improve your flexibility is after exercising, so take another five to ten minutes to stretch after your workout. It’s also a great idea to take one day a week to focus on deeper stretches. Yoga, Pilates or stretch classes are ideal for helping you improve your flexibility. At All About You! we incorporate these types of exercises into our regular programming.
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Lifestyle Strategies STRATEGY #19: REST AND SLEEP Most people don’t realize that getting adequate rest & sleep are essential to long-term weight loss. Your body needs a break from strenuous cardiovascular exercise at least one day a week in order to prevent injuries. Rest is even more important when it comes to strength training. Remember that when you lift a heavy weight, you are creating tiny micro-tears in the muscle fibers. In the next 48 hours, the tears mend themselves and build back up. So, it is during that rest period that you are becoming stronger. If you lift heavy weights with the same muscles every day, you break down the muscle little by little and wind up weaker instead of stronger. As you’ve already read (but we have to say it again because it is so important!), your muscle is your fat burning machinery. The more muscle on your body, the faster, stronger and healthier your metabolism is. This translates into burning more calories each and every day. Believe it or not, getting at least eight hours of sleep can make a significant different in your weight loss efforts. Here’s why: sleep is linked to the hormones that control your appetite. Ghrelin, a hormone produced in the gastrointestinal tract, stimulates your appetite. Guess what happens when you don’t 27
get enough sleep? Your ghrelin levels go up, making you hungry. On the other hand, leptin, which is produced in fat cells, is the hormone that sends a message to your brain to let it know when you are full. And, you guessed it, when you are lacking sleep, your leptin levels go down! This means that you may not feel satisfied, even after a big meal. As if that’s not bad enough, there’s more! In one sleep study, the desire for sugary, calorie-dense foods increased by 45% in those with the least amount of sleep. And those who slept the fewest hours per night had the highest percentage of body fat! So no excuses! If you are serious about losing weight, you need to make sleep a high priority. STRATEGY #20 FOCUS ON LONG-TERM HEALTH When your only goal is weight loss, it’s easy to give up when you are tempted to watch tv rather than exercise, or when you are tempted to overindulge in your favorite treats. On the other hand, if you focus on your desire to live a long healthy life so that you can enjoy the activities you love and spend more time with the people you love, it’s easier to stay faithful to your healthy lifestyle.
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STRATEGY #21: SURROUND YOURSELF WITH SUPPORT & COMMUNITY We started this book with the most important strategy: attitude! And, we’re wrapping it up with the second most important: support & community. If you’re reading this book, we know weight loss is a major concern for you. And, if you’ve read this far, we know you are serious about losing it and keeping it off for good. The biggest favor you can do for yourself right now is surround yourself with positive people who encourage and support your weight loss efforts. Joining a community-oriented program like All About You! Wellness BootCamp can have a significant impact on your ability to reach your goals. The daily encouragement you’ll receive from the leaders as well as the other members can be just what you need to get through a rough patch. Belonging to a community of people who value a healthy lifestyle gives you plenty of opportunities to share ideas, recipes and strategies that will help you continue to make progress toward optimum health and wellness. If there are people in your life right now who are hindering or sabotaging your progress, you have two choices. If you do not have a close emotional attachment to this person, drop them like a hot potato! You do not need to be hanging around people who
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are going to drag you down and sap you of your energy and motivation. However, if the saboteur is an immediate family member or someone else very close to you (and whom you want to remain close to), you need another tactic. We’ve found that the best way to convert this type of person into a supporter is to have a good, honest, heart-to-heart talk. Explain to them exactly why losing weight is so important to you. Remind them that you want to be healthy so that you can spend more quality years with them. In an open and honest manner, ask for their support. Inviting them onto your team and including them on your journey can be the incentive they need to become your greatest cheerleader. You may even become an inspiration for that person to begin taking better care of their own health & fitness. You are always welcome to invite friends & family members to join you for one complimentary session at AAY! BootCamp. Just have them go to our website and click “Guest Pass.”
Summary You’ve now learned the 21 Secrets of Weight Loss. We have absolute confidence that you can and will achieve your weight loss goal. Once you achieve your goal, we know that you also have what it takes to maintain your healthy weight for the rest of your life. We wish you a very long, healthy and joyful life. 30