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For immediate release:  August 6 , 2007 (Clyde, NC)

Avoid Taking a Vacation from Healthy Habits

By Leigh Hilger, M.S.

It’s summertime.  Time to get outdoors, go for a walk and shed winter weight gain.  Before you decide to start a crash diet to lose your weight, think again.  Diets promising fast weight loss may do so at the expense of your health, not to mention that they often don’t live up to their weight loss promise! 

Lose weight healthily and sensibly by cutting out 300-500 food calories each day from your regular eating patterns.   Look for those foods that offer lots of calories with little nutrition.  Ideas:  sodas, vending machine snacks (often 250 or more calories each!), full fat salad dressings, potato chips, etc.  If you’ve been maintaining your current weight, cutting 500 calories each day could add up to a pound lost each week.

What’s the other secret to healthy weight loss?  Regular physical activity.  Thirty to sixty minutes each day can really boost weight loss and develop into a habit that will help you keep your weight off.  This activity can be done in small increments throughout the day to make it easier and it will still be effective. 

Other behaviors that can lead to consistent weigh loss are…                           

• Small snacks to help avoid hunger.  Hunger can lead to binges
• Eat breakfast every day.
• Track your progress.  Keep records of your habits.  Set weekly goals of what you are planning to do (ex: exercise after work 4 days, carry fruit instead of getting snacks at the vending machine.).
• Access your resources.  Join a weight management program and/or fitness center,               hire a personal trainer, enlist a friend as a walking partner
• Keep a positive attitude!  Notice you successes instead of focusing on what you perceive to be your failures.  Change takes time so strive for improvement instead of perfection.

Successful weight management is the end result of many small choices that add up over time.  Start today, one choice at a time!

Leigh Hilger, MS,  Health Educator at Haywood Regional Health and Fitness Center.  For more information on weight management programs at Haywood Regional Health and Fitness Center, call 452-8085

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