3 Great Tips to Lose Weight and Glow

Our weight is the number one issue for most women. An optimal weight differs for every woman, but we all know that glow when we love being in our skin and when we do not.

I have discovered three great tips to lose weight and glow. They are linked to intermittent fasting, but you can take these three great tips and apply them to your own weight loss strategy.

If you are new to intermittent fasting or have not heard of it before, I suggest that you also read my blog, Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss, Reduced Bladder Infections and Glowing Skin.

Here are my three great tips to lose weight and glow!

Tip #1 Go Slow and Steady

It is tempting to attempt to lose weight by jumping right into intermittent fasting with an optimal 16-8 window, 16 hours of fasting and eight hours of eating. But I do not think that is the best strategy. The best strategy is to look at what your fasting/eating window is right now and claw back more of your eating window for fasting.

So, if like me, you often have a piece of fruit before you go to bed at night, let's say at 21:30, and then you have a cup of tea with milk at 6:30, that gives you a 9:15 split, nine hours of fasting and 15 hours of eating. Once you have determined what your current split is, work one hour at a time work towards a 10:14 split. Once you have got that sorted work towards an 11:13 split until you reach a split that is optimal for you.

Another approach is to look at what you could change that would give you an optimal split straight away.

Here is how it could look: simply by removing that piece of fruit before bed at night and by finishing my dinner by 19:30 I already gain an additional hour and a half for fasting. Remember, to succeed, your split needs to be maintainable. I have decided on a 15:9 split as it works best with my lifestyle and is maintainable for the long-term.

Also only introduce two new changes at a time. If we bring in too many changes at once, our internal resistance against change starts to kick in. By only bringing in two changes, we have time to adjust to our new routine. For example, switching that morning cup of tea with milk out for a straight-up Rooibos tea and removing the fruit snack after dinner are two small changes that worked well for me when I started out.

To soften the adjustment, I have kept my café latté treat at 10:00 every morning. It is a pleasure to look forward to and it also breaks my fast. I have found that retaining this simple pleasure and only making two changes at a time have both contributed to setting me for success with intermittent fasting.

Tip #2 Develop Trust between Yourself and your Body

This slow and steady approach to weight loss has the added benefit that there is no shock to the system, creating trust with your body. This means that, despite some changes, your body trusts the changes that you are making and trusts that you are going to feed it. Hence, it does not go into starvation mode. So, when it sends you that hunger signal and you let it know that no we are not going to eat right now, it trusts you and waits.

This may be a new concept for you, developing trust between you and your body. So here is a synopsis.

It is about building trust between your head, your heart, and your body. If we eat only with our bodies, we have gluttony. If we eat only with our heads, we have judgment and austerity. If we eat only with our hearts, then we have the basis for emotional eating. What we want is a healthy synergy between the  three. One where we eat for pleasure and enjoyment, balanced with knowledge of food that is good for us, and a routine and rhythm that brings sustainability to our eating regimen.

Tip #3 Know your Why and your What

Why do you want to do intermittent fasting? And what is it going to give you?  The two work together. Once you have that, hold it as a visual in front of you so that you know what the end goal is.

For example, like many of us, you may be doing this for weight loss, in which case, put up a picture of your slimmer self or a picture of someone you aspire to look like. And know what it is going to give you. Perhaps it means that you are going to look better and feel better in your clothes, or you are going to have the confidence that you are lacking right now.

I am doing intermittent fasting both for weight loss and for healthy aging. I have some dreams for the future, and I want my body to be there for me to step into those dreams when they arrive.

Perhaps you simply want to get up and have energy for that day because right now you are feeling flat, slow, and lethargic. That often happens during midlife as our metabolism slows. That is a good desire, so find a visual of what that would look like for you. Find a visual that inspires you.

The knowing of both our why and our what springs into action when our bodies send us a hunger pang. Our visual becomes our go-to to counsel ourselves, counsel our stomachs, and counsel our bodies that we are headed for a goal. With our visual in place, we encourage ourselves to hunker down and to push through knowing that delaying the gratification is well worth it.

I am new to intermittent fasting; I am currently on day 30. These three tips are working for me as I have noticed changes in the last stubborn weight clinging to my thighs and tummy. Try them and let me know if they work for you too.

Photo by Bill Oxford on Unsplash

Photo credit: alan KO on Unsplash