Let's Review!
By now you know that cutting down on your calories can help you lose extra weight. Your personal daily calorie target depends on many factors, like your age, weight, and physical activity. If you don't know your daily calorie target, send your care manager a message.
You've also learned about these ways to lower calories:
Avoid extra sugars and fats.
Make shifts to healthier options.
Read food labels and serving sizes.
Eat only until you feel satisfied or almost full.
Remember, eating healthy can help you lower your risk of disease.
Adding more exercise to your week can also burn extra calories.
You should have a target weight goal. Your target weight is the lower weight you want to be. Keep in mind that a 1-to-2-pound weight loss per week is safe.
Check in with yourself:
How many total pounds do you want to lose?
How much time will that take?
Have you started to see some progress?
Barriers in reaching your goal
By this time, you may have hit some barriers in reaching your goal:
Barriers to eating healthy may be the constant parties or events, stress, or lack of support. Food cravings can also make it hard to change.
Barriers to physical activity might be a lack of time or person to exercise with, or that it's just hard to stay motivated. You can read more about these tomorrow or read ahead now at Barriers to Physical Activity.
Jeff's story
I couldn't find the time to be active, but then my son asked me to go for a walk when he needed advice. Now I walk around the house every time I'm on the phone. Making myself walk felt good. I even planned a trip with a friend to a nearby city and didn't rent a car, so I had to walk around for days!
Barriers will always be there. You can always find creative ways to overcome them. Your care manager can help you, too! Send your care manager a message.
Time to reflect
What is 1 barrier you've had during this program?
How did you work around it? Or how will you work around it?