Motivation 101

To lose weight and keep it off takes eating right and thinking right.

Made a resolution to slim down? That’s the easy part. It’s staying the course—keeping to your diet or maintaining your weight once you’ve lost the excess pounds—that’s the real challenge. It’s a two-pronged effort involving both psychology and nutrition. Here’s how to tap into both to stay motivated while you get, and keep, the weight off.

GET PSYCHED

• Listen to your body. “The best way to stay motivated is to pay attention to the signals your body sends and eat accordingly,” says Debra Gill, Ph.D., a psychologist in Livingston who specializes in weight loss. In other words, eat when you’re genuinely hungry and stop when you’re satisfied. Of course, if you’ve spent years eating for reasons other than hunger—for emotional reasons or out of sheer habit—you may have to teach yourself to recognize those hunger/satiation signals.
• Soothe yourself with non-edible pleasures. If you eat to make yourself feel better, that’s emotional eating, which is not motivated by true hunger. Gill suggests looking to your other senses. “Take a long, hot soak in the tub, indulge yourself with scented candles or lotions or listen to music that you love,” she advises—or do all of them at the same time.
• Eat mindfully. If you bolt your food, you won’t have time to get real satisfaction from it, and you may find that you’ve eaten significantly more than you need before your brain gets the message that you’re full. “Take one bite at a time,” says Gill. And take time to appreciate the subtle flavors and textures of different foods: the satisfying chewiness of al dente pasta, the tang of a sprinkling of sharp cheese, the creaminess of Greek yogurt, the acidic bite and contrasting sweetness of a blood orange.
• Expect to fail. Occasionally, that is. Forgive small swerves off course, like that double-fudge brownie you “found room for” after a full and satisfying Sunday dinner. Just don’t use little slips as an excuse to binge.

EAT SMART

• Know your triggers. Most of us have one or more foods—chocolate, potato chips, cheese—that set off a desire to overeat. “Identify your own triggers, and keep them out of your house,” says Laurie Wasserman, a registered dietitian in Fairfield. Instead, stock your pantry with healthy alternatives that offer similar satisfaction: dark chocolate-covered almonds instead of chocolate cookies; peanut butter and apples instead of chocolate-covered peanut butter cups; frozen grapes or bananas.
• Don’t wait. Nothing undercuts motivation like hunger. Wasserman recommends keeping small, healthy snacks on hand (a handful of nuts or a piece of fruit, for instance) to tide you over until the next meal. “I don’t believe that being strictly limited to three meals works for most people,” she says.
• Reconsider fat. Fat has gotten a bad rap for too long. “A little bit of healthy fat isn’t just good for you, it also helps satisfy your appetite,” says Wasserman. And because fat takes longer to digest than most other foods, it can keep you feeling full for a longer period of time.
• Make it delicious. “Healthy food doesn’t need to be tasteless,” Wasserman notes. You won’t stay motivated for long if your go-to foods are green salad dressed with vinegar and plain broiled fish or chicken. Herbs and spices— especially hot spices—or a drizzle of herb-infused olive oil adds interest and savor to almost any dish. Wasserman is also a fan of what she calls “controlled flexibility.” That means picking an occasional day or meal at which you can eat something you really crave: Sunday morning pancakes with the family, say, or that rich entrée at your favorite restaurant. “Plan for it, enjoy it and then don’t feel guilty,” Wasserman advises.
• Watch out for sugar. Sugar satisfies hunger almost immediately. The problem is it’s also metabolized quickly, leading to precipitous drops in blood glucose that cause you to feel hungry again too soon. These lead in turn to a craving for—guess what?—more sugar. (The same is true of simple carbohydrates like bread and crackers made from refined flour, which are transformed into sugar when they come into contact with saliva.) To satisfy hunger in the long run, make sure you include protein in your snacks—skim milk, low-fat yogurt without added sugar, a little bit of peanut butter or a handful of nuts.

More Ways to Stay the Course:

• Put it in writing. Start every day by putting your weight-loss goal in writing. In the process, you’ll be reinforcing it mentally.
• Feel good. Lab studies prove that pleasure strengthens self-control. Build good times into your schedule—a YouTube cat-video break, a classic comedy after dinner, a bedroom date with your better half.
• Reward yourself. Every time you hit a short term goal (like losing two pounds and keeping them off for a week), give yourself a present that mirrors the new, fitter you—some flashy workout gear, a massage, a bowlful of beautiful blood oranges, a supercharged juicer.
• Wear red. Research indicates that the fiery hue empowers the wearer and can even influence sports performance.
• Eat yellow. It’s the color of happiness, and it could help you enjoy that low-calorie food a lot more. Toss some yellow peppers into a salad, brighten up boiled rice with a hint of saffron, serve grilled chicken or fish with a twist of lemon.
• Drink orange. Juice, that is. A Florida State University study revealed that maintaining blood glucose levels enhanced willpower. If yours is star ting to flag, drink a small glass (3 to 4 ounces) of orange juice (or eat a small orange) and add a handful of almonds for staying power.