There’s a lot of reason why it’s a good idea to lose weight. But if you need one that isn’t about looks, then how about pain management? Keeping your weight under control is actually helpful when it comes to back pain prevention which has been rising and becoming more common nowadays. You're more likely to suffer from low back pain if you are overweight or obese, or quickly gain a significant amount of weight. Being overweight, especially in the mid-section, shifts your entire center of gravity forward and puts additional strain on your back muscles. Try to stay within 10 pounds of your ideal weight to avoid experiencing unnecessary back pain. To help you lose weight successfully, here are some tips to plan better on how to do it because it all starts on the goal setting.
Be Specific
Don’t just say you’re gonna lose weight. Determine why you want it for, how much you want to lose and how exactly are you planning to do it. Let’s say you’re trying to lose weight to reduce your back pain, then don’t just kill yourself at the gym or start starving yourself because while you may see results doing those, it’s also very likely that you’ll develop other problems along the way.
So first, you should look into where you’re at weight-wise. Keep a record by writing it down or making a note on your phone (whatever works for you) so that you can stay on track. And then know how much you want to shed since having that figure whether it’s 10 lbs or 50 lbs allows you to see if you’re progressing or not. Lastly, you should really get into the details on the steps you’re thinking to go about it. Like you should plan your meals, know the foods that you can and cannot eat. It also helps to schedule your workouts so you’re more likely to stick to it.
Set Short And Long Term Goals
It’s important that you have both short and long term goals when you’re trying to shed pounds. Why? Because while the long term goal, which let's say losing a total of 40 pounds, is the finished product that you want to achieve. The short term ones, like losing 5 pounds every month, allows you to stay motivated and focused on reaching your ultimate goal. If you only think of the 40 pounds that you wanna lose, it’s easy to be discouraged or get lazy along the way since it’s gonna take some time before it happens. But if you have mini goals every week or month of the journey, the whole thing won’t feel much of a struggle because you can see that you’re getting close to what you want in the long run.
Examples of short term goals that can help you reach your long term ones are:
· Switching into healthier alternatives of your usual meals or snacks.
· Limiting alcohol/soda/fast-food to once a week only.
· Cooking your own food at least for one meal a day.
· Drinking a glass of water every hour.
There are a lot more that you can make adjustments to in your daily life depending on your routine and lifestyle but setting even those tiny goals keeps you more accountable to your plans.
Stay Realistic
Biting more than you can chew is a surefire way to failure. Understand that you didn’t gain the excess weight that you have overnight. So do not assume that the transformation will happen overnight too.
Set goals that you know is within your capability and probability. Now, what does that mean? It means the goals that you should set, both short and long term, should be realistic and achievable. If you normally eat out due to your busy schedule and have never exercised before, then don’t plan on home cooking 3 meals a day 7 days a week and/or going to the gym every single day on top of that. Chances are, you wouldn’t last a week and you’ll drop the whole weight-loss goal.
Cooking your own food is the best way to limit things and be more in control on what you feed your body. But if you’re really busy, then just commit to cooking at least your own dinner and packing your own snacks at work. Once you’ve gradually worked out your schedule to that and have gotten used to it, then you can slowly try to wake up a little earlier and make your own breakfast. This way you have two main meals and snacks that are healthy and then accept that packing your own lunch may not just be feasible since you don’t have more time to cook in the morning and allow yourself to grab whatever’s convenient in your cafeteria. Planning it this way makes it easier to accomplish thing more often than forcing yourself into unrealistic goals and then beating yourself up when you can’t do them. That just defeats the purpose of the whole thing.
When it comes to exercising, especially if you have an office job where you sit a lot, admit to yourself that you may not be able to do it as consistently as you would like to. So don’t be disappointed with yourself if you can’t go to the gym every day. Just find ways to move more wherever you are. They say sitting is the new smoking. Not only can sitting for an extended period of time cause health issues, it also a reason why you might be struggling to shed pounds since insufficient physical activity leads to that. So if you have a deskbound job, even find ways to interrupt sitting or squeeze more exercise in your routine like taking the stairs to your office instead of the elevator counts as a workout. Sedentary lifestyle causes some people not only gain weight but also develop musculoskeletal conditions which can make losing weight even more difficult. If this is your case, better consult a chiropractor right away to address your condition accordingly which when treated can help you lose weight in the process.
Establish Your State Of Mind
Remember that weight-loss goals can also be behavior goals, or “state of mind” goals. These types of goals include:
· Eat slower
· Pay more attention to the Nutrition Facts labels and ingredient lists on food products
· Stop negative “self-talk,” such as telling yourself you’re fat or incapable of change
· Change the direction in which you walk or drive to avoid food temptations
A behavioral change could include meditation classes to help alleviate stress, which in turn could help you eliminate stress-related behaviors such as eating junk food for comfort. It could also be staying abreast of new research that relates to diet, pain, and the connection between the two. And, of course, when it comes to weight control and overall health, any physical activity you can safely do, including walking, is much better than no exercise at all, can help boost your spirits, and could give you a little more leeway in your diet.
Stay Open Minded
If you want to successfully change your lifestyle to achieve your goal, know that you have to be flexible. Even if you've started to adapt healthy habits, always keep in mind that things may not work according to your plans every single day. Let’s say you’ve been making your own breakfast and dinner for weeks now but due to events or hectic work schedule, you couldn’t do breakfast. That’s okay. Use that opportunity to find a place to grab breakfast that’s still healthy. Or if you couldn’t go to the gym as planned, then just find 5-minutes within the day to do simple but compound workouts at home or during breaks at work to maximize the time. You don’t have to actually follow your weight loss plan to a T. Improvise if you must or take alternative routes that still leads to the same direction of your plan. Try new things or different ways to achieve your goal and you might just learn that you have a lot of options to choose from when time or circumstances are working against you. They may not be what you’ve set out to do but if they’re healthy habits and changes then you’re basically still on track.
