How To Beat Common Mistakes

Losing weight is tough – we all know that it’s not easy and this is especially so after we have had a baby and are trying to lose pregnancy weight.
But often, we set ourselves up for failure when starting a weight loss plan by making common mistakes.
We are too hard on ourselves, we set goals that are not realistic and we also expect to lose weight fast – especially as there are so many fad diets that claim rapid weight loss in a week!.
To help you out, the Lose Baby Weight team have come up with the most common weight loss mistakes that people make when starting a new weight loss plan – and how to beat them – and if you take these on board when following the Lose Baby Weight plans you will lose your baby weight in a safe and healthy way.

Too Much Too Fast

When you finally make the decision to lose weight and you have the motivation to get started, it can be tempting to do everything at once – to change your entire eating plan and to do half an hour of exercise every day. But attempting to do everything at once will in most cases set you up for failure – you’ll burn out.
How to Beat it: Change one thing at a time. First, get your eating habits sorted. Make your new eating habits part of everyday life, and once you are used to your new eating habits you can introduce the exercise. But not all at once – start off by doing 10 minutes of exercise here and there, then increase the time spent exercising until you reach half an hour of moderate exercise 5 times a week. That’s considered to be the optimum level for health and weight loss – but you can of course exercise more than this if desired.

Thinking of it as a Diet, Not a Lifestyle Change

If you think of your new way of life as a diet, it will inevitably end. Thinking that the way you are eating isn’t normal, and that you’ll eventually come off the diet and go back to the way you were eating is a spell for disaster. You will not keep the weight off if you come off the diet – you need to eat well and look after yourself for life to maintain any weight you do lose.
How to Beat it: View your diet as a lifestyle change. If something is habit and a way of life, it is easy peasy to stick to.

Cutting Out Everything

Many people believe that to lose weight you need to cut out everything – wine, chocolate and potato chips are all no-nos. In fact, if you want to stick to your diet, you absolutely cannot cut everything out that you love. Of course, you need to eat well – including lots of vegetables, fruit, complex carbs, lean protein and some low fat calcium in your diet will help you to lose weight and it will also help you to feel great. But cutting out everything you love can lead to you falling very heavily off the wagon and indulging in everything you’ve missed in a great big blow-out – which will seriously derail your weight loss plans.
How to Beat it: Include things you love in your diet occasionally, but just be sure to count them in your daily calorie intake. Remember that food should be enjoyed and you can’t always be “dieting” at things like family occasions or meals out to mark your wedding anniversary. Including treats will also mean that you’ll be much more likely – and much more able – to stick to your healthy eating plan for life.

Not Letting Yourself Make Mistakes

Many people who are new to healthy eating and healthy living find it very difficult when they make a mistake. If they miss a session at the gym, or if they eat a chocolate bar, they beat themselves up about it and decide to just scrap the whole plan for the day. The mentality is “I’ve already failed, so one more chocolate bar/bag of crisps/missed gym session won’t matter”. This is a very defeatist way to think and can also make it much more difficult for you to maintain your weight loss.
How to Beat it: Let yourself make those mistakes. If you eat a chocolate bar, instead of worrying about it or succumbing to a takeaway, accept it and move on with the rest of your day by eating healthily. Or, you could do a little exercise on that day to burn off those extra calories. Just don’t beat yourself up about it – accept that you are human, that you’ll make mistakes, but that you will get thinner – it might just take a little extra time.