Healthy Weight Tips

Avoid emotional eating.

• Don’t let strong feelings turn into weight gain.
• Figure out what your eating triggers are.
• Pay attention to how much and what you are eating.

Don’t skip meals.

• Skipping meals does not help you lose weight!
• Your body needs a certain number of calories every day.
• If you skip a meal, you will probably snack or eat more later.
• Try to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day.

Get rid of guilt.

• Feeling guilty about eating a “bad” food or eating too much isn’t helpful.
• Guilt is a type of negative thinking, and you can overcome it!
• Instead, make a list of the foods that you feel most guilty about eating, and replace them with healthier foods or eat them less often and in smaller amounts.
• Stop buying the foods that make you feel guilty. You can’t eat them if you don’t have them in the house.

Eat when you are hungry and stop eating when you’re full.

• Sit at a table to eat.
• Slow down! Eating slowly lets you enjoy your food and gives your brain a chance to figure out when you’re full.
• Put your fork down between most bites to help you slow down.
• Pay attention to portion size.

Plan to have healthy snacks.

• Snacking is not always a bad thing. It just depends on what the snack is.
• Prepare healthy snacks ahead of time and keep them handy when you’re on the go.
• Healthy snacks include raw vegetables, fruit, a small handful of nuts, or unbuttered popcorn. Look at snacks as a way to eat more fruits and vegetables.

Understand recent weight gain.

• Sometimes people gain weight in a short period of time because they are going through hard times (death, divorce, or job changes). They don’t have the time or energy to watch what they eat or to get regular physical activity.
• Are you gaining weight because you are trying to quit smoking?

Understand how weight loss works.

• If you have tried losing weight but weren’t able to keep it off, don’t feel bad!
• Most diets lead to some weight loss, but keeping the weight off is much harder.
• Think about when you tried to lose weight: what worked and what didn’t work?

Be active while sitting.

• If you spend a lot of time sitting, either watching TV or working at a desk, get more active!
• Aim for 2½ hours of physical activity each week.
• Physical activity not only can help you lose weight or stay at a healthy weight, it can:
• Improve your blood pressure and cholesterol
• Lower your risk of developing heart disease, cancer, and diabetes
• Relieve stress