My Plan to Lose Weight After Menopause

My plan to lose weight consists of 5 simple things.

1. Stay Hydrated
2. Move My Body
3. Stop Eating When I'm Full
4. Commit to Take Action
5. Manage My Thoughts

That's it. Seems simple enough.

That's the point. If I complicate things, I'll get dragged down with all the details and end up just giving it all up.

Instead, I'm making it easy.

1. Stay Hydrated

EVERY article and professional I see talking about weight loss seems to agree on one point - the importance of staying hydrated.

I don't mind water, I just prefer coffee. So making myself commit to drinking water will be a change.

I know water serves many purposes. Helping with digestion, with my joints and even regulating my body temperature. (https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/how-much-water-should-you-drink)

Whether increased hydration will help with clear skin or help reduce my dry eye issues, I don't know. But I do know it won't hurt either of those!

Goal: Drink 64 ounces of water a day

2. Move My Body

I am wording it this way on purpose.

I'm not committing to a number of minutes to exercise or a type of exercise.

I know I am going to exercise every day. I am planning on walking, yoga and weight training.

However, since I'm starting from a point of a VERY sedentary lifestyle, I'm going to slowly build. So to start, I'm doing yoga to help start my daily moving, and 30 minutes on my treadmill at an incline. My goal is to walk so that I start sweating.

In addition, I want to do some weight training. I want to get strong!

To start off, I am going to do weights 3 times a week.

Goal: Yoga, 30 minutes of cardiovascular daily. Weight training 3 times a week.

3. Stop Eating When I'm Full

This is the ONLY food restriction I am putting on myself.

I will eat when I get hungry. I am not going to eat just because of the time of day.

I am going to make sure I get enough fiber and protein in my diet.

And besides that, I can eat what I want.

I do have some eating limitations that I already had. I'm lactose intolerant so I limit my dairy and choose to drink almond or oat milk.

I also have reduced my consumption of refined white flour and sugar. I haven't cut these things out, but I usually make food choices with these reduced.

I don't drink alcohol. My husband and I have never been drinkers. I might have a margarita once a year. Honestly, I don't like the taste of alcohol.

But instead, I'm taking a note from Corinne Crabtree (https://www.phit-n-phat.com/) and I'm going to listen to my body and stop eating when I'm full.

Goal: Stop Eating When I Feel Body Reactions of Being Full

4. Commit to Take Action

I don't control the outcome.

I can exercise, drink water, and do all the things, and my body might still not lose weight.

I have never REALLY tried to do this before for an extended period of time to know if I can get results or not.

But I'm not going to tie my feelings to achieving any result.

Instead, I am going to focus on the action I want to take.

I am going to commit to take the action.

I also know there may be days where I don't take the action.

And on those days, I'll just pick up with the next meal and follow the action I planned on.

Goal: Take action.

5. Manage My Thoughts

This is the final one on my list, but it's really where this all starts.

I am going to manage my thoughts about myself, my body, and my results.

I am going to step on the scale on a weekly basis - and I'm not going to make the number mean anything about my self-worth or the way I think about myself.

Or the way I talk to myself.

My weight is just a data point. It tells me if the decisions I'm making and the action I'm taking is giving me a result I want.

If it isn't, then I can change things up.

But weight doesn't mean I'm a bad person.

It's just a number like my height, my age, my vision (which is not good!)

It's a number that I can change.

And I'm going to change it.

But I'm not going to tie it to the way I think about myself.

Goal: Love myself.