Category Archives: Weight Loss

Tips to Make Your New Year’s Resolutions Stick

scrabble-resolutionsDid you know that January 17th is Ditch New Year’s Resolution Day? Do you know that, according to some studies, almost 80% of people who make New Year’s resolutions abandon them at some point during the year and only about 12% succeed with their resolutions?  Don’t let that be you.

Making a New Year’s Resolution is another way of saying you’d like to make a behavioral change.  You want to do something different this year to attain a certain goal and to continue with this change.

Here are my top 10 tips to turn your resolutions into reality:

  1. Limit the number of resolutions. Work on changing one or two things at a time.
  2. Make your goals attainable, measurable and realistic. Instead of going from never working out to planning on working out 7 days a week, begin by setting the goal at 2 days a week.
  3. Make a plan to reach that 1st, small, attainable goal. What’s your plan to get to the gym 2 days a week?
  4. Visualize yourself having reached your goal.
  5. Believe in yourself
  6. Do one thing each day that will help you reach your goal.
  7. Track your progress.
  8. Consider enlisting the support of others.
  9. Make your goal specific.
  10. Focus on the small achievements and reward yourself for them.

To read the complete article, please visit:  https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/life-without-anxiety/201801/tips-make-your-new-year-s-resolutions-stick

Happy New Year! Enjoy your new habits!

 

Tips to Maintaining Weight during the Holidays

dessert-4Holiday season is upon us and since I work with many people wanting to lose weight, I am often asked for strategies to maintaining present weight or even to continue weight loss during the holidays. No doubt your willpower will be tested during this season.  Invitations await, cookies and fancy cocktails beckon, and it seems like everyone is begging you to taste their fattening masterpieces. Don’t panic, make a plan and be kind to yourself!

Here are some tips to help you stick to your goals during the holidays:

  1. Avoid hunger. Make sure you eat regularly during the day and always include healthy proteins, which you help you feel satisfied for longer periods of time.  Before going to a party, eat some vegetables and protein so you are not ravenous when the party begins.  Going to a party with a somewhat full stomach will help you avoid some of the temptations.
  2. Do some party planning. Don’t plan to abstain from all the goodies, that’s probably unrealistic and may cause you to overeat in the end. It’s often difficult to turn a blind eye to the scrumptious foods placed before you, so decide in advance what you’re going to splurge on.  If dessert is your favorite, decide to take a bite or two of one to three desserts. Or maybe you’ll skip desserts in favor of a starch at the meal.  Perhaps the hors d’oeuvres are what calls you so you’ll forgo desserts and starches in favor of tasting a few of them.  Planning ahead will encourage you not to sample everything and will help prevent you giving yourself a hard time.
  3. Keep your body moving. Plan to do a little exercise every day.  Take a walk with a friend, take the stairs instead of the elevator, do yoga or dance.  Just moving and exercising with friends will give you that boost of support you may need.
  4. Say NO thank you. When hosts encourage you to eat or drink, learn to say “thank you but I’ve had enough”.  It’s lovely to want to protect other’s feelings but not at the expense of your own health.
  5. Be kind to yourself. You are not what you eat and what you eat doesn’t translate into your value as a person.  Eating well during the holidays is very challenging.  If you slip up, show yourself some kindness and recognize that you can stick to your plan going forward.  Talk to yourself the way you’d talk to a friend you love and admire.
  6. Stay on track while at home. Make sure to eat healthy while at home, loading up on your vegetables and healthy proteins.
  7. Visualize the way you’d like to look in the outfit you’d like to wear. Ask yourself how each choice of food will impact your weight goal.
  8. Celebrate yourself when you stick to your plans and follow your goals.  Make sure to notice your successes and even reward yourself with a massage, facial or something else of meaning to you.
  9. Minimize stress. Holidays can be a stressful time.  Minimize stress by exercising, stretching, meditating and spending time with friends.

I wish you all a very happy and healthy holiday season!

 

 

Virtual Gastric Band Hypnosis helps thousands lose Weight

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fat to thinHypnotherapy has long been in the news because of its benefits for weight loss.  I have found it to be extremely useful in helping my patients lose the weight they want to lose and in keeping it off.  It is not magic and one still needs to do the work.  Hypnosis makes it easier to do the work.  Why?  Because it works with unconscious motivations, patterns and habits.  I believe we all possess the tools to help us lose weight but we don’t tap into those tools because we eat for reasons other than true, physical hunger.

Hypnosis will make it easier to distinguish between real, stomach hunger and emotional hunger.  It helps people feel like they want to make healthy choices rather than thinking they “should” make those choices.  You will still have to use willpower, but it will be easier to use it.  With the gastric band hypnotherapy program, it will be easier to realize when you have eaten enough to sustain health so that you can stop before you overeat.

The weight loss with this program is usually steady and sustainable.  This means there is no “diet” to go on and no diet to go off, making it easier to keep the weight off.  You will learn how to change your relationship with food and deal with feelings of anxiety, sadness, frustration, etc. without turning to food.

I am so excited to offer this program to those who have been struggling with their weight.  For more information please see https://lindawaltercounseling.com/common-issues/virtual-gastric-band-weight-loss-therapy/