work over the long haul.
If you have a burning desire to read ahead to learn more about a particular topic, go ahead. Just as if you were working one-on-one with a registered dietitian, you should cover the topics most important to you. However, you should resist the temptation to take on more than a few topics and skills at one time. Long-term success requires re-learning behaviors, and we can learn only so much at one time. Also, resist the temptation to skip sections. If you are looking to lose weight, everything in this book applies to you.
Share this book and what you learn with your family and others who are important to you. Allow them to support you, and allow them to learn as well. Most of the skills you will learn are the same skills anyone—with diabetes or not—needs to achieve successful weight loss and optimal health. Ask someone who wants to lose weight to work through the book with you. You’ll both benefit and enjoy each other’s support.
Before you even get started, ask yourself why you want to lose weight. What is your reason? What motivates you? One benefit of weight loss is better health, which leads to improved control of blood glucose and blood pressure, increased fertility, healthier pregnancies, and reduced risk of heart disease, cancer, and more. Some benefits are directly related to your quality of life: you have more energy, sleep more soundly, cross your legs more comfortably, suffer less knee pain, and wear trendier clothes.
Motivation comes and goes, so you will need to help it along sometimes. Get a jump on that now while your motivation is high. Put together an individualized Motivation Kit. Get a box or notebook or both to collect photos, magazine articles, motivational sayings, meaningful quotations, your list of reasons to lose weight, affirmation cards, and anything else that pumps you up and reminds you of the reasons why you want to get healthier. Keep your Motivation Kit handy so you can reach for it whenever you need it, and so you can add to it often.
Use a reliable scale to measure your weight. Plot your weight on the Weight-Loss Graph in the Appendix. Do this each time you weigh in. To check the reliability of your scale, weigh yourself three times within a minute or so. Each weight should vary by no more than a pound. If, for example, the scale indicates that you weigh 180 pounds, but when you stand on it two more times it indicates your weight to be 184 and 177 pounds, it’s not a reliable scale. Either buy another or plan to regularly visit your doctor’s office or gym for your weigh-ins.
How often should you weigh yourself? That depends on you. If you can use the scale as nothing more than information to guide your actions, weigh in at least once a week. This way, you can reevaluate your diet and exercise plan if your weight isn’t dropping. But if the number on the scale becomes a source of anxiety rather than merely a number that carries no judgment, weigh yourself less frequently—once a week, once a month, or not at all.
“I want to lose 15 pounds this week,” is an example of an unrealistic goal. “I plan to lose 1–2 pounds this week,” is far more realistic but still ineffective. The problem with this statement is that it focuses on the end result and not on the behavior needed to get there. How are you going to lose those pounds? What behaviors do you need to change?
“I will eat better,” does focus on a behavior—eating. However, it is still too vague to be effective. How do you define eating better? How will you determine if you are successful? Each of these elements needs to be part of your goal.
By following the SMART principles of goal setting, you’ll be able to march down a clear path to success. Once you have your goals clearly defined, write them down and keep them in a place where you’ll be able to read them often. Below are the five elements of a SMART goal; you will also find a corresponding worksheet in the Appendix.
S: Specific
Avoid vague goals. Be specific about what you will do, how you will do it, and where you will do it. If your goal is specific, anyone who reads it will know exactly what you plan to do.
M: Measureable
Can you measure your success? Will you be able to report if you are 100% or 75% successful?
A: Action Oriented
Be certain your goal is listed as a behavior. What action will you take?
R: Realistic
Is this goal attainable if you put forth effort? Can you achieve this with the resources you have?
T: Timely
Know when you will do this and when you will assess your results.
Examples of SMART Goal Setting
Once your goals are written, ask yourself what you need to do to be successful. If you plan to eat fruits and vegetables with every meal, you’ll need to have them on hand. If you regularly skip breakfast, you might need to set your alarm to get up 20 minutes earlier each day or prepare a grab-and-go breakfast the night before. By thinking through your goals clearly, you’re setting yourself up to win.
Now you’re ready to begin. Be prepared to work hard, plan ahead, and learn new skills.
Week 1 addresses the most basic skills you need in order to start losing weight that you can keep off forever. You will learn that calories rule, about the importance of keeping records, that there is more than one way to eat healthfully, and how to get active.
With so much talk about fats and carbohydrate in the media and among friends, the simple calorie gets neglected. In fact, many people don’t fully understand what a calorie is, and many people ignore them completely. Technically, a calorie is a unit of energy. We need calories from food to run our bodies, just like a car requires energy from gas in order to operate. If we take in more energy than we need, it gets stored as fat and we gain weight. The only way to lose weight is to consume fewer calories than the body uses. Fats and carbs are important, but they are not what matters most when it comes to your weight.
The amount of calories your body needs depends on many things: your weight, the amount of muscle and fat you have, your activity level, genetics, and more. This number is neither good nor bad; it’s just a number. Think of it the same way you consider the yards of fabric you need to cover your windows or the number of bricks you need to build a house. Different types and sizes require different amounts.
You don’t have to count calories to drop pounds, but it’s important to know your approximate calorie needs so you can decide how particular foods and their portions fit into your eating plan. Visit ChooseMyPlate.gov, a site created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), where you’ll enter your age, weight, and activity level to learn how many calories you need to lose weight. Generally, women require
