Weight Loss Secrets: Setting Your Day Up for Success

When it comes to weight loss, the biggest secret I’ve observed is to take it one day at a time. Here’s how I structure each day for weight loss success.

No question, weight loss success is possible by stringing together as many successful days as possible. Consistency is key, and each day there’s an opportunity to win the day.

Top Tips Just for Today

Setting up your day for success can make the difference between starting the day with motivation to stick to your plan, but then giving it up by noon. Instead, staying motivated and on track all day long can be possible. Here’s the secrets that have helped me stick to it all day long.

Pretrack meals. Instead of waiting till the end of the day, or after you spontaneously eat something, decide before the day starts what you’re going to be eating. Let your calorie tracking log calculate the days total for you, and then decide if you need to make adjustments before you even start eating for the day.
Decide, “Just for today!“. Don’t let overwhelm for your weight loss goals cause you to give up before you even get started. If in the morning you commit to staying on track, “Just for today,” you can also decide to postpone any temptation to tomorrow.
Avoid temptation – out of sight out of mind. Keeping treat food around just make it harder to stick with your plan. Especially, if you’re like me who “buys it for other people in the house”, but then the only one eating the treats is me! (I’m looking at you Graham Crackers and Nilla Wafers!)
Delay gratification and Eat it Later. I once did a little book review about a book called, Eat It Later. It was super short, but the main idea has stuck with me. When you have a craving, just simply WAIT to eat it. How long can you wait? It doesn’t have to be forever, but delaying the craving rather than immediately indulging is good practice.
Start the day with high volume veggies– There’s been three people in the last two days who have told me this works for them. Start breakfast with some high volume vegetables (even if it’s potatoes). After a filling breakfast, they are less likely to overeat the rest of the day.
Don’t drink your calories- oh man, if there is one thing I would never do is waste my calories on drinks. Talk about not filling at all!? Plus, there are so many low calorie drink options (I list some here), that you might as well save your calories for whole foods that you can chew.
Make smart swaps- more filling, fewer calories. Any low calorie swaps you can make can pay off in the end.
- Egg whites for whole eggs,
- rice cakes for crackers,
- light mayo for regular mayonnaise,
- nonfat yogurt for full fat yogurt (big savings on calories),
- zoodles for noodles.
- shiratake noodles for regular pasta
- Thin sliced bread for regular (Like Killer Dave’s thin sliced)
- Low calorie/low carb tortillas for regular tortillas
- 93% ground turkey for 80% lean..
- Butter flavored cooking spray instead of butter.
Wait till the end of a social event to indulge. One of my best secrets of all time is how to navigate family parties or social events when there’s a tempting food table. If I start the evening with a few treats, I’ll keep going back to the food table over and over all night, until I’ve eaten all the delicious foods. But, if I simply wait till the last 20-30 minutes to even taste something, It so much easier to not over do it!
Choose whole foods over processed, pureed, or ground. Sounds simple enough, but the truth about how our body uses calories does change depending on the level of processing something goes through. You’re more likely to absorb more calories through peanut butter than whole peanuts. The more pureed or ground a few is, the easier it is to overeat it and to absorb more of it. This is good sometimes when you want to maximize nutrients, but if you’re attempting a calorie deficit, you probably don’t need your food pureed and mashed.