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One Small Change Challenge! #onesmallchange

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Good morning!

Last week I was listening to the radio (wow–do people still listen to the radio?  I do!) and I heard them say there’s a new study that says people will lose more weight making one small change to their lifestyle than doing a strict regimen.  I have no idea if that is really true, but I think over the long term, it probably is.  It’s very hard to keep up a strict healthy lifestyle, and more often than not, people will go off the rails and sometimes binge eat when they do.  Oh I’m sorry, did I say People?  I meant me.

Right now I keep wanting to start doing a strict diet plan but it feels like my body won’t let me.  A couple weeks ago I dropped most refined carbs from my diet in order to help me to be less addicted to them.  It was working great for a few days, but then my acid reflux came at me with a vengeance.  And in the past, the only thing that has curbed it was junk food!  It’s very weird.  I can take tons of antacids or I could just eat a granola bar and only the granola bar actually makes it feel better.  Sucky.

So of course I ended up on the wrong side of that diet plan and it failed.  Once that went away, my kids got sick.  And then I got sick.  So here I sit, with a fresh cold, not wanting to do anything related to counting calories or exercise.  Plus it’s still so freaking cold outside!  Where are you spring??

click for souce
click for souce

Back to the radio thing.  So what I have decided to do is to just try to make a couple small changes to my lifestyle and it should help me overall.  My two changes:

1)  Go to bed before 11 PM every night.

2)  Don’t eat anything after 8 PM every night.

The going to bed thing needs to happen, since I am quite a night owl.  Last night I almost made it, being in bed by 11:18.  But since my body wasn’t used to it, I didn’t fall asleep until about 1.  It takes time to adjust.  And the nighttime snacking moratorium should really help me lose weight, since the majority of food and BAD food I eat is after dinner.  I am a stress eater–meaning that after a stressful day with my kids, I will eat my feelings once they’ve gone to bed.

I’m inviting everyone else to follow along and make one small change with me!  This challenge runs for the entire month of April, and it’s going to be hard for me since April is one of my most stressful months.  But it’s just small changes so it’s totally doable, right?  I’m going to post my progress on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook and you can follow along with the hashtag #onesmallchange.  I would get so motivated to keep going if others are doing it with me!

Some other small changes you can make:

  • Take the stairs to your office
  • Park far away from the stores you go to
  • Drink your coffee black (without cream or sugar)
  • Get up and walk around during commercials when watching TV
  • Cut out a daily treat you have (a cookie, a soda, an alcoholic drink, etc)
  • Make your meals last at least 20 minutes (how long it takes your brain to recognize you’re full)
  • Find any way to move around for 20 extra minutes a day (or 4 five-minute increments)
  • Replace one serving of something bad for vegetables
  • Replace liquid calories (juice, soda, alcohol, etc) for water
  • Eat more meals at home (pack a lunch for work, home-cooked dinners)
  • Use smaller dishes:  Put dinner on a salad plate and a drink in a tall skinny glass.  This tricks you into thinking you have more food than you do!)
  • Portion control:  Take half of what you would normally serve yourself.
  • Condition your body to eat until you’re only 80% full, not stuffed.
  • When eating out, split an entree.

Let’s make these lifestyle changes together and see how much it helps us!  There is low pressure here, so you should be able to do it!  And don’t feel like if you don’t succeed for a day or two you should give up!  It’s not about perfection, it’s about the effort.  I know I won’t be perfect.  These small changes go against all our basic animal urges, so it will be a battle.  But we will come out a little bit better.  Please join me!

 

6 Comments

  1. Sounds great! I choose using a smaller plate and not eating after 8pm. Oi, I’m glad I don’t have to do it alone!!!

  2. I swapped out my usual Turkey Sandwich for a Salad with Cottage Cheese scoop and mild Italian cheese shreds, sweet red pepper diced, celery slices, cucumber slices with a rice wine vinegar and Olive Oil, sugar to taste,chicken powder, a smidgen of Toasted Sesame Seed oil, touch of black pepper at Lunch which for me is between 11:00 – 11:30 a.m. Then I have another meal at 2:00 -2:30 p.m. that consists of Fruit an Cheeses/ crackers or a Tuna Salad Sandwich and then the main dinner about 8 P.m. since that is when my hubby can finally pry himself away from his computer to fix dinner. Then I go to bed at 8 p.m. I have come to like Mandarin oranges in Orange jello or Pineapple Tidbits for my snacks :o)

    The previous dressing is what I also use for my Asian Cabbage Salad with Cabbage shreds, Chickpeas, Green Onions sliced. Put it all in a large bowl toss with the dressing and then you can add slivered almonds and sesame seed as garnishment.

    I have been trying for the last year to get my hubby to buy only healthy whole foods but he refuses to do so. My Downfall is Pop. I have not yet met a Natural Cola yet, have you? Right now the poor guy is so overwhelmed by my very poor health at the moment. They found a nodule on my left adrenal gland they really want to check out further. I also suffer from Ankylosing Spondylitis. Here lately it has been one medical test after the other so it makes it tuff for me to be on my blog. Been gathering up some pictures to post about If I can quit hurting so bad…..

  3. I will cut out sugar and only have two slices of bread each day, see how that goes.

  4. Sounds good Heidi good luck!

  5. I like the one about conditioning yourself to eat until 80% full. That really makes sense!

  6. I can share with you two changes I’ve made and I started noticing results immediately. It does imply reading the small print in every ready made item you buy, but I find that helpful as it helps make you aware of what you are actually eating.

    I stopped buying

    1. Anything with transfats. Any “hydrogenated xxx oil” or “partially hydrogenated xxx” means transfats.

    2. Anything with glucose syrup. Again, read the ingredients list and you’ll find that or maybe “corn syrup” “high fructose syrup” “inverted caramel syrup” etc. I was surprise to find it even in light mayo!

    That little extra belly fat I found so hard to get rid of began to disappear even if I didn’t increase my exercise time.

    And yes making food from scratch is always the best option but if I ocassionally buy ready-made food I make sure those ingredients are not present.

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