It’s safe to say that college life can take a toll on your health—from the lack of sleep to the excessive snacking, to maybe one too many beers. Naturally, weight gain can be the cause and affect of stress, but don’t panic. Nancy Clark, a nutrition specialist from the greater Boston area, wrote an incredibly detailed book on how to healthfully maintain, lose, or gain weight. The Sports Nutrition Guidebook is the #1 nutrition resource for active people, and what collegiette wouldn’t want a little advice from a professional on how to eat right and look and feel great? Below are her 10 steps for successful fat loss.
1. Write it down
Research suggests that people who keep food records tend to lose weight effectively. If you eat for reasons other than to obtain fuel, you need to recognize that food should only be fuel. Food becomes dangerously fattening when it is eaten for entertainment, comfort, or stress reduction.
2. Frontload your calories
If you eat lightly during the day and excessively at night, experiment with having a bigger breakfast and lunch and a lighter dinner. Many people believe diets are supposed to start at breakfast, but Nancy suggests starting at dinner. You’ll need more energy to get through your active day, so nourish as necessary in the morning for an energy-packed day.
3. Eat slowly
Because the brain needs about 20 minutes to receive the signal that you’ve eaten your fill, slow eating can save you many calories. No matter how much you eat in those 20 minutes, the satiety signal doesn’t move any faster. Try to pace your eating time so that you eat less and avoid discomfort that often occurs after rapid and excessive eating. Remember, the best part about food is the taste so if you aren’t taking the time to enjoy the taste, what’s the point?!
4. Eat your favorite foods
If you deny yourself permission to eat what you truly want to eat, you are likely to binge. But if you give yourself permission to eat your desired foods in diet portions, you will be less likely to blow your plan. If you allow yourself to have your favorite treat twice a week, you’ll be much more likely to not feel deprived.
5. Avoid temptation
Out of sight, out of mind—and out of mouth! Try to stay away from rooms like the kitchen or the pantry where you might be tempted to snack just because it’s in front of you. If you always take a walk through town past a doughnut shop, try a different route so you won’t feel as tempted.
6. Keep a list of nonfood activities
When you are bored, lonely, tired, or nervous, you need to have some strategies in mind that have nothing to do with eating. Food is designed to be fuel, not entertainment, and not a reward for having survived another stressful day. When you overeat because you are stressed, you are only trying to be nice to yourself, food alters your brain chemistry and may put you in a happier mood—temporarily, that is. In the end this inappropriate coping mechanism will leave you even more stressed and depressed from the weight gain.
7. Make a realistic eating plan
You don’t have to lose weight every day. Rather, every day you can choose to lose, maintain, or even gain weight. If you face a hectic schedule, give yourself permission to fuel yourself fully and have a maintain-weight day. You’ll need the energy to cope. Try to see weight reduction as being a daily choice that depends on the stress level of the day, and not as a continuous several-month plan. You will feel more in control and accomplished than if you see yourself as failure for not complying to a diet every single day.
8. Schedule appointments for exercise
If you’re the type of person that has trouble following a consistent exercise program, you might be helped by scheduling the time to exercise in your appointment book. You want to exercise regularly to tone muscles, relieve stress, and improve your health—but you should not over-exercise. Remember though, exercise should be for fun and fitness, not simply for burning off calories! Be sure to enjoy yourself.
9. Make sleep a priority
Getting too little sleep and make you feel hungrier. When you are tired, the signals to your brain to stop eating are very quiet and the signals to eat more are very loud. Feeling well-rested will also ensure you’re less irritable and cranky, which in turn will curb your appetite.
10. Think fit and healthy
If you tell yourself that you are eating more healthfully and are successfully losing weight, you will do so more easily. Positive self-image is important for your well-being.
Hopefully these wise tips from Nancy Clark will have you on your way to a happier, healthier, fitter you. Now go tell yourself you can do this—after you enjoy your favorite treat of course!