Travis Eneix

Sorry for the cumbersome title. I originally wrote, “Things To Not Do When On A Diet”, but I remembered I hate the word diet as it is misused in the modern fitness world. In any event, I was inspired by an article over at Lifehack.org, Fitness is a Journey. Bring a Map., so here we go.

Straight from my experience, here’s a few things to avoid when on a diet weight loss plan:

• Thirst: There’s a couple of old adages regarding proper hydration that I find very useful;
1. If you are thirsty it’s too late, you are already dehydrated. You can avoid this state with a few simple steps. One, drink some water as soon as you get up. Two, always have something to hand to sip at whenever you are sitting, or reclining.
2. Watch the color of your urine. If it’s clear you are doing well. If it’s not, drink some water.
• Also, your body maintains a set hydration level. When you drink water it is absorbed immediately, and if that brings you above your set hydration level it is moved swiftly to your bladder for expulsion. The problem is that if you have had long standing levels of low hydration then your body has adapted to that state and accepted the low set hydration level. Your set level only moves up very slowly. To get past that you want to bypass that system. You can do that by getting your body to treat water as food, rather than water. Mix some unsweetened fruit juice into your water. A mix of 1 part juice to 3-4 parts water will do the trick nicely. This will cause the water to be absorbed a little more slowly, and can partially bypass the set hydration level check, which will get your set hydration level to rise more quickly.
• Going Hungry: Don’t do it. Being overly hungry means you are tempting your body to go into a starvation response. That means your metabolism will lower, and your body’s mechanism for storing fat will ramp up. Those are bad. Being hungry is fine, but when the rumbles start, nibble something.
• Sitting Still: Our culture has a lot of excuses for extended periods of time spent on our backsides. Fight the tide! Get up and stretch those legs frequently. Get the blood moving. I used to keep a large, 3/4 gallon, nalgene plastic bottle on my desk for my water. Mistake. That meant I only had to get up to go to the bathroom. Now I use a pint glass, while maintaining the same level of fluid intake. That means frequent trips to the office kitchen, which is thankfully on the other side of the building.
• Feeling Stuffed: That painful bloated feeling you get when you stop ten bites to late. You know what I’m talking about. Avoid it. It expands your stomach and makes it harder to reach that point next time, allowing for an upwards spiral of consumable volumes. Note that it takes your body sometime to feel things after they enter your stomach. Eat slow. When you start to feel a little full, stop and take a break. See if you can be done. Your stomach will shrink to a more normal size, and the next time you will feel full sooner, which will help the downward spiral of weight loss.
• Doubt:  I do not ascribe to the Law of Attraction.  But, I do believe in the Power of Intention, and the Might of Self Talk.  Our brains are amazing tools, infinitely capable of steering us on the course we say we desire.  If you say internally, “I’ll never get thin”, your brain will help you to fulfill that goal.  If you say, “I’m getting thinner!”, your mind will work to perpetually keep you in that state, which is to say always getting thinner but never being thin.  Acknowledge your successes as they come.  Consciously modify your internal dialog.  Switch, “I’m getting thinner,” to, “I am thinner,” and the results may amaze you.  At the very least you will stop beating yourself up.

That’s it folks, a few tips on things to avoid when working on weight loss.  Until next time, sip some sweet water, nibble if you need to, move a bit, don’t eat too much, and celebrate your successes.

Cheers!

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