Weight Loss Through Balance

Finding the right balance between your mind and body is an important step to losing weight. Your approach should be one of confidence, patience, determination and perseverance. You will likely experience times of stress, as well as setbacks along the way, but as long as you take the necessary steps to release that daily tension, reaching the goal of obtaining a healthy body will be that much easier.

Here are simple relaxation tips for your body and mind, as well as some great healthy food tips.

Relaxation Tips

Sit in a comfortable chair in a quiet room. Tense or contract each muscle group for the count of 10, then relax slowly for the count of 10. For each group, notice the difference between the feeling of tension and the warm, soft feeling of relaxation. Go from tension to relaxation slowly.

• Tense and slowly relax your fists and forearms.
• Bend your elbows and tense and relax your biceps.
• Straighten your arms and tense and relax your triceps.
• Wrinkle up and relax your forehead.
• Clench and relax your jaw.
• Shrug and relax your shoulders.
• Fill your lungs and let air out slowly.
• Pull in and relax your stomach.
• Push down your feet to tense and relax your thighs.
• Tip up your toes to tense and relax your shins.
• Raise your heels to tense and relax your calves.

This exercise will take about twenty minutes the first time, but will take less time later. Eventually, you will be able to put your body in a state of complete relaxation almost at will.

Breathing Tips

Try the following for 2-3 minutes. Practice this every day until you can do it routinely in any stressful situation.

• Breathe slowly and deeply in through your nose, and out through your mouth in a steady rhythm. Try to make your breath out twice as long as your breath in.
• Use your diaphragm to breathe. When we become anxious we forget to use this muscle and often use the muscles at the top of the chest and our shoulders instead.
• Relax your shoulders and upper chest muscles when you breathe. With each breathe out, try to consciously relax those muscles until you are primarily using your diaphragm.

Food Tips

• No more frying – bake, grill, broil, braise, roast, steam, or sauté instead.
• Forget the oily salad dressings – try a squeeze of fresh lemon with a dash of olive oil.
• No need for fatty dips – beans, eggplant, tofu, and fat-free yogurt, cottage cheese, or sour cream make delicious dip base. Also enjoy tomato, cucumber, or mango/red onion salsa.
• Lose the butter – use an all-fruit spread on your morning toast, and a tasty low-fat sauce or seasoning on grains and veggies.
• Avoid animal fats – try meat and dairy alternatives, or fat-free milk, yogurt, cheese, etc.
• Drop the sodas and sugared fruit drinks. As we all know, excess sugar converts into fat in the body.
• Drink lots of water! To help flush the system of toxins and replenish.
• Eliminate junk fast foods – for a quick meal, go for veggie sushi, wraps, or burgers.
• Eat smaller, more frequent meals. This is recommended by Dieticians and doctors because eating smaller meals 5-6 times per day helps increase and maintain a high metabolism.
• Take time to chew – remember, digestion begins in the mouth. Proper digestion is very important in weight loss and maintenance because the body uses and eliminates food accordingly.
  

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