Fresh Beginning and A Fresh You: Jump Starting Your Spring Weight Loss

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By Rachel Derry
Staff Writer LIFamilies

Spring is a time of rebirth and inspiration. Animals come out of hiding as plants and trees come back to life. We, too, start to change our winter-hibernation ways and head back outside into the nicer weather and spring time activities. Now is the season to get back on track and start thinking healthy again. If you haven't yet, this is the perfect time to rethink your own health and bring your own body and mind back to life. With the beautiful weather, starting a new health and weight loss routine for you should be a little easier, as should be reaching that beach-ready goal!

Start by spring cleaning your cupboards. When it comes to your spring weight loss, remember it’s not just calories burned that you need to keep in mind when getting on your own weight-loss track; you also need to worry about calories in. You can spend every waking hour that you have in the gym on cardio, but if your calories in surpass your calories out, you’re not going to get the results you are looking for. Clean out all of the snacks and processed, high calorie food. Replace some of the must stay stand-ins with their healthier alternatives; replace your white flour with rice flour, spelt flour, or whole wheat flour; replace your EVOO with coconut, flaxseed or grape seed oil; replace your regular pasta with whole wheat alternatives. Every extra nutritional step you take towards your weight loss goal is a step in the right direction!

Once you're done with your cupboards, it’s time to make your way to the refrigerator. Check and see what you have in there that’s fresh and alive. You want to focus on green and colorful fresh fruits and vegetables this season (as you should every season), and you’ll want to clear out anything that stands in your way. Ditch the processed and preserved options; head to your closest farmers market and make you fridge look like an indoor garden. It’s amazing how much better and more energized you’ll feel with this one step! It’ll help your new, spring moving and grooving seem like a piece of cake!

Now that your nutrition is on the right track, it’s time to get your body moving! For a sure success in weight loss endeavors, you will want to figure out what you enjoy most and stick to it. Figure out what sports and recreation really get your motor running; figure out what activities you have a passion for. If you can't get enough of kayaking, make it part of your weekly, if not daily, routine. Find related or similar activities that you can keep up with in the in between; say you get out kayaking Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, maybe take surfing lessons on Tuesday and aqua-aerobics on Thursday. Your passion and drive will help you attain your goals without it ever seeming like “work.”

Be sure to set ascertainable goals for yourself along the way. Challenge yourself to meet the next goal a few pounds at a time. When you start out, if you just look at the end goal, it can become overwhelming; derailing your progress before you ever really got a chance to get going. When you set smaller goals and challenges for yourself, you are able to keep up your momentum and motivation as you reach each stepping stone.

Don’t feel required to go it alone. Enlist the help of a friend or two who is also looking to work towards their own weight loss goals. Changing your mindset and habits is hard enough; why not do it with a little bit of support and motivation to help make it easier? Work out with your friends a couple times a week. Share new found healthy recipes and finds. Talk through your cravings and bad days; it helps to have someone by your side that truly understands. Make your spring self-cleansing more fun and less of a challenge with friends running alongside.

Long Island Health, Fitness & Beauty Articles > Fresh Beginning and A Fresh You: Jump Starting Your Spring Weight Loss