10 ways to stop worrying about weight loss

Consider this. What would happen if you stopped thinking about losing weight? What if, instead of obsessing about restricting carbs or kilojoules, you focused on what you love doing or would like to achieve? The answer is that you most likely stand to be better off health- and weight-loss wise than if you were to go on a diet. Try these simple ways to get into healthy habits without even noticing.

Delay every meal or snack by at least 10 minutes to cut down on eating when you’re not hungry. If you tend to eat out of habit, or when you’re stressed or unhappy, it’s worth resetting this automatic behaviour to reduce the power food has over you. Taking 10 minutes to consider whether you’re hungry, or getting involved in another activity, helps put you and your body’s real hunger signals in control.

Find a good fruit-and-veg store in your area and aim to shop there once or twice a week. Buy produce that looks fresh and is in season (you’ll know, as it will be well priced). Then find a recipe containing that ingredient and try it. When you’re in touch with what’s fresh right now, it helps you enjoy making good choices. A range of produce varies your diet in a positive way and cooking something new reminds you how competent you are at caring for your own wellbeing.

We know you’ve heard this one before, but eating slowly and consciously being aware of every mouthful really works. It gives your body a chance to catch up with your intake and helps you recognise the signals that indicate you’ve had enough. Most of us are completely disconnected from the sensation of being satisfied with a meal. We eat until we’re full. Eating slowly allows you to recognise when you’ve had just the right amount to stop you feeling hungry.

Give your meals a rating – rate each mouthful out of 10, where 10 stands for maximum pleasure, five is okay and zero represents no pleasure at all (less than zero is the point at which you feel sick!), then practise stopping at five. We so often continue eating long after the pleasure is gone and need to reconnect with the real joys of food.

Before you begin eating, say to yourself, ‘I can have this if I want it, but do I really feel like it?’ We get so used to denying ourselves things and creating negative messages around different foods, it becomes impossible to not eat them – and we fail. But with this strategy, the answer is irrelevant. The permission frees you of guilt and the question helps you understand why you eat, even when you’re not hungry.

Take a 10-minute walk before or after each meal. A brisk walk around the block refreshes your mind between activities. Before a meal, it means you’re less likely to take the stress of your schedule or last task with you to the table, and calm eating is healthy eating. After a meal, a walk removes you from the food zone and marks an end point to the meal, so you’re less likely to automatically have a second helping or pick at leftovers. Try experimenting walking before and after you wash up to see what works best for you.

Speak kindly to yourself. There are always many good things about you and how you look. Giving yourself a regular approving glance or wink is so much better for your conscious and subconscious opinion of yourself than the excessive self-criticism we tend to engage in. Even if it feels fraudulent at first, forming this habit will make you want to nurture yourself, make choices in favour of your health and start a positive cycle of trust and self-care. Just smiling at your reflection will change everything – first momentarily, then more lastingly, for the better.

Re-create your childhood every weekend. Remember the days when you spent hours out of doors, spinning around the neighbourhood on your bicycle, playing with the dog in the park, bouncing on a trampoline, exploring the beach with a friend and dancing and singing to the top 40. It’s about revisiting the idea of movement for enjoyment’s sake. Being active in a way that’s pleasurable is so packed with physical and psychological benefits that it ultimately nourishes your positive image of yourself. It’s a fabulous stress buster, heart starter and muscle awakener.

Do something you love for at least half an hour, a couple of times a week – don’t turn on the television though. Read a novel or a design blog, potter on Pinterest, learn painting or photography, make yourself a skirt, put together a photograph album or listen to music. When your relationship with food is messed up, food can become omnipresent. It can become the lens through which you view life. And if that lens is also restricted because you’re denying yourself a number of foods, your life can start to look small and cramped and not much fun. Indulging in other activities you love will help to broaden your view and your opportunities for satisfaction.

Simply enter two diary notes a week that will get you closer to achieving something, whether that’s rewriting your CV, going on a walking holiday, learning how to edit videos, planting a herb or vegetable garden, setting up a tropical fish tank, organising a school reunion or recording the story of a family member. Purposeful behaviour actually gets things done. It’s productive, which is motivating beyond the actual task. Being industrious also exercises your skills and your brain in different ways. Achieving each step in the process (responding to your diary notes and actually ticking them off) gives you frequent opportunities to appreciate your varied talents and enjoy success.