5 stress free ways to lose your first 5 pounds

You know you’d really like to lose some weight, but you aren’t really even sure about where to start? You’ve heard of all the diets, and others things people have done to lose weight but you aren’t interested in fads, or anything that costs a ton of money or isn’t really sustainable or healthy. You are certainly not trying to look great in a bikini, but you wouldn’t mind feeling a little more confident in the body & skin God gave you! But really, you just want to feel more energized and tune up your eating and exercise habits a little so you can start actually not feeling so tired all the time … and not to mention you are trying to prep meals for kids, who all have their own set of food preferences and aren’t exactly interested in cooking separate “diet” meals for yourself on top of cooking for a family. So, what is a mom to do? Please, read on, my dear sister, because that is what I am going to help you with!

First, know why it is important for you to lose weight. Has your doctor or provider recommended this as a way to improve your health, your labs, etc? What may happen or how will you feel if you have not lost any weight or even gained more weight in a year from now? How will that affect your life? How will you feel? Decide the purpose for your weight loss. HINT: You most likely want to be obedient and steward your body better AND be a more peaceful and healthy mom so you can live your purpose and show up as the best you in your life for your loved ones! You know your days are numbered, God has gifted you and you know by getting even just a little bit healthier can help you add some special life to your days and become the peaceful and healthy mom and person you know you are!

Second, take an honest food assessment. Keep an informal food journal and mindfully write down everything you eat, no matter how small of a handful. Just like a money budget, we often get in a litttttttle bit more food than we would like to admit, just like it’s so easy to go over budget every littl ebut and it starts adding up to debt, just like the extra calories start adding to extra pounds. One thing you have to do here is do NOT shame yourself. Most of us truly get in just a wee bit more food energy aka Calories than what our body needs so it will store it away for a rainy day and hence, gain weight. This journal is not meant to be stressful or a dreaded task, but simply noting the food you ate make you tune in more closely to your eating and your portions … and teach you a thing or two about your eating habits and where you may be able to make some tweaks. The act of food journaling itself has been shown to help with weight loss and improved eating habits because … well who wants to write down that they ended up eating a whole bag of chips during the day, one nibble at a time.

Third, Eat out of hunger and to feed yourself, not to soothe yourself emotionally. We all want to feel good, truly. God designed our brains to experience joy and pleasure and we can get little hits of that dopamine from eating some fun treat foods! Nothing wrong with that. The problem comes in when we keep going and try to satisfy our emotions or try to keep getting hits of that dopamine to feel better even tho we really aren’t hungry … or we keep eating even tho we are a bit full and stuffed feeling. Food companies design foods to be ADDICTING so we keep buying them … and God put some pretty perfectly amazing whole foods for us to eat on this earth (apple, anyone?) that will also give us a dopamine hit BUT because they are a whole food untouched by man’s highly processed food factories and food chemicals, they typically don’t give as big of a hit of doapmine and therefore you do not hear about people being addicted to apples. However, when we train our brains right and eat more healthful nutritious whole foods rather than highly processed packaged addicting “food like products”, we will experience more satisfaction from consuming the whole foods as we wean our brains off of the highly processes foods slowly and adjust the proportions of whole foods (aka foods God made!) we eat compared to the addicting food like products.

Fourth, Drink mostly water or non sugared beverages, please skip the sweetened pop/ soda and sugary coffee drinks. Its shocking how many calories we can get from things we drink when we don’t even realize it. In addition, the high influx of liquid sugar makes our blood sugar start to skyrocket and our pancreas cranks out insulin like crazy … and that fuel that you drank is quickly stored away in your cells, however, usually, unless we are about to run a marathion, we do NOT use to sugar calories up and they are stored as backup fuel and well, lets just say that does that opposite of what we are trying to achieve by reading this post which is get the ball rolling with losing weight. There are studies out there that show the ill effects of consuming high sugar drinks even with “healthy” people with no known disease. It simply is not natural for our body to have that flood of sugar coming into our body. Now, I am not knocking coffee. I love my coffee. A good cp of coffee with a touch of sweet cream will still be far less calories and way cheaper than a mocha or a flavored latte at your local coffee shop. I am also a fan of a little splash of half and half as well if you just can’t do black coffee. If you cannot fathom the thought of giving up your favorite sugary coffee drink, a first step would be to ask for the sugar free syrup to be added instead of the regular version and this will get you started in the right direction. I have looked up the nutrition facts for some of the drinks at Caribou coffee, a local coffee shop for us here in Minnesota, and there are some drinks upwards of 1000 Calories and 95+ grams of carbohydrate which is nearing about 75% of the total amount some people need in a day! In addition for you wine lovers, consider cutting out or greatly reducing what you consume as those calories quickly add up as wine and alcohol in general are very calorically dense. Instead of drinking your calories in sugar, focus on getting your fuel from proteins, fruits, veggies, some whole grains, and healthy fats. Read on ….

Fifth, chew your food well when you eat it and take your time eating. I know for most of us moms, having time to sit down and enjoy an uninterrupted meal is a luxury, but consider that it takes 20 minutes for our stomach to tell our brain that we are full. God designed our bodies so amazingly that there are so many signals that tell our brain that we have had enough to eat! When we stay in tune with our body more and more we can recognize them and get in the appropriate portions of food that our body needs. I know we live in a fast paced world, and I am so discouraged by that, but I make intentional time to relax and really savor my food, chew it well as I know that my digestion will be better as well when the vagus nerve is not as activated from stress and anxiety and I am in more calm state for eating. I often play calming music or piano hymns in the background at family dinners or if I am eating at my desk to simply try to focus on my food. Again, this can be a challenging thing to do BUT I promise that if you do pay attention to the speed you eat at your meals and chew your meals and snacks you can be more in tune with your body, likely eat less and be in a more peaceful and relaxed state and not feel as uncomfortable or bloated either. Plus, slowing down can help us be in a state of more gratitude for the food God has provided us and enhance our overall well-being as well! Eating is a great cue for us to be intentional to slow down and enjoy!

Did you notice that not one of these tips involved coutning macros or calories? Getting started with losing weight starts with a mindset shift, just like with doing a spending budget, we have to start becoming AWARE of our habits and keep in mind the big purpose or vision for why we would want to do anything different in the first place! You become healthier day by day with each choice you make to nourish yourslef in an intentional way and PAY attention to the signals that your body is telling you as that honors God’s design for your body. Start becoming aware of sneaky extras and little over-indulgences so you can tune in to your body and start helping it become healthier and more balanced and taking off extra weight and improve your health and well being and energy ! Your life is so important to God, and we have purpose here on this earth and by being the healthiest version of ourselves we can live out our God given days well with His guidance always!

If you want to get more tips and learn more about how I can help you with your health and weight loss without stress or striving, but in a healthy way and from a place of confident peace, you can learn more here. {Insert Purposeful Weight Loss Method info here} and Free weight loss video training.

And, until next time, May the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen! Philippians 4:7.