In February we think of Valentine’s Day. And what is a primary association with Valentine? Chocolate and candy! It’s hard to resist when friends and family and affectionate partners bestow yummy sugar-filled treats and romantic dinners upon us. As lovely as they are, sometimes these February indulgences can lead us right off our weight loss track, causing a major slip. Or enough deviation to put us on a frustrating plateau.

February also happens to be the month where a lot of the best-intentioned New Year resolutions fall by the wayside - particularly around dieting and nutrition. Perhaps we started the year off strong by swearing off sugars, giving up popcorn, or 2nd helpings, or committing to a “Dry-January”; maybe it was an exercise regime. And if you were well-intentioned you began an effective weight loss program like ours at BonVie Weight Loss & Nutritional Wellness. But now it’s February. And it’s Valentine’s. Has some of that early resolve waned, leaving you susceptible to temptations?

Now if you have been doing a DIY diet, or have been following a fad diet then you are especially vulnerable. Quick-fix diets that are not sustainable over time can lead to secondary consequences including GI (gastro-intestinal) issues, hair loss, low blood sugar, slowing of metabolism, and worse. When you decide to break from that fad or quick-fix diet you could be in for a terrible rebound. We call that the yo-yo effect. You lose weight quickly, not in a healthy way, then you have the opposite body response and put the weight back on and often more in addition. This yo-yo effect is mostly a result of burning down muscle during a quick-fix diet. Since muscle uses fat for fuel if you burn down muscle then you have less ability to burn fat. When you return to “normal” eating you have less muscle to burn fat than you did before your diet so you put the fat back on. Plus on a quick fix or fad diet you never learn proper nutrition or lifestyle tools in how to sustain your new weight number into the future.

Or perhaps you began with a really solid weight loss program and now find yourself in burnout mode, or just bored with your food choices. This is when it’s especially important to work with your weight loss coach at BonVie who will help you with new motivation, a few tweaks to your program, and give you recipe ideas to make your food more interesting and appealing. Your weekly check-ins during this challenging time of year are critical to getting through this phase and getting your commitment back.

In fact, good weight loss coaching is designed to motivate and support you, and to keep you accountable. A good coach will be regularly adjusting your program, according to your lifestyle and responsibilities, your changing tastes, exercise, and travel – it’s our job to make the program work for you (providing you will work the program). Also to make adjustments for the bored and burned-out syndromes. We need to keep it fresh so that you can stick with your program until you reach your goal.

Understanding Why We Slip on New Year Resolutions:

It’s important not only to follow a diet regime but to also understand why we have you do certain things. By understanding the basic physiology behind fat loss and fat storage, and how the foods and quantities of foods, and frequency of eating affect your metabolism, you are armed with lifestyle tools and attitudes. Adjusting your diet in a very specific way and understanding the rationale behind that can provide powerful methods to sustain your weight loss over time.

It’s also very important to understand what the mechanisms of a diet program “slip” are. If we can better understand the “why” so we can better know how to avoid these pitfalls.

Most people fail because they eventually run out of willpower. It turns out from scientific studies that willpower is a real form of mental energy, powered by glucose in the bloodstream which is used up as you exert self-control.

Now this is something interesting: a research study that tracked people’s reactions to temptations throughout the day showed that people with the best self-control are the ones who use their willpower - less often. Instead of fending off one urge after another, these people set up their lives to minimize temptations. They play offense, not defense, using their willpower in advance so that they avoid crises and conserve their mental energy when faced with temptation.

This strategy is especially important if you’re trying to lose weight. As mentioned weight loss is one of the most prevalent of New Year’s resolutions as well as one of the most difficult. In a lot of DIY diets you are just counting calories, or starving yourself, and your brain’s glucose supply can get way out of whack. And this means less willpower. Because of this vicious cycle, even people with great self-control for the rest of their lives can have a terrible time remaining slim.

This science behind glucose and the brain makes perfect sense as to why so many people fail in their diet resolutions. This is why having a very defined program and coaching support during a weight loss program truly makes a difference in being successful on your diet, and in keeping the weight off after you’ve worked so hard to lose it. The program gives you structure, the coach gives you motivation, support, guidelines, and very importantly, accountability.

Doing a supervised low-carb/high-protein weight loss program means that you are getting just the right amount of glucose for your brain and other body functions. The body does something amazing on a low-carb diet. The protein in muscle will create glucose for the brain and bodily needs in a process called gluconeogenesis.

How Weather Can Impact Weight Loss: Weather?! Yes, weather.

This may seem like a strange connection but another factor at this time of year affecting success or failure is how we respond to weather, in particular, dark overcast days and forbidding temperatures and conditions. Be it a snowstorm in Portland or an atmospheric river in Southern California, these radical weather events can put a big damper on our activity outside the home, work, and play included. Seasonal Affect Disorder is a real thing. So is Vitamin D deficiency. Being emotionally affected by the weather lends to more binging or craving comfort foods. Making ourselves exercise even when we don’t want to, using synthetic light for SAD, supplementing with Vitamin D, socializing, even if by Zoom, and checking in with your coach will all help stave off the wintertime blues.

Guidelines to Be Successful in Achieving Your Goals.

Goals are, after all, the same as resolutions.

First. Be realistic. If you have a laundry list of resolutions your attention, energy, resources, and will power will all be diluted and, likely, you will not achieve many, or any of those goals.

Limit yourself to one to three, max, resolutions for the new year.

Second. Make your goals achievable. If you say you want to be 3 clothes sizes smaller by Valentine’s, that may not be very realistic (unless you are in a structured program with great coaching support like at BonVie Weight Loss & Nutritional Wellness).

If you are trying a do-it-yourself program it may be more realistic to develop a strategy for each single smaller clothes size. In other words, break down your goals into smaller achievable steps. You know how to eat an elephant, don’t you? One bite at a time. Pardon the pun…

Three. Write out a specific strategy: a game plan. And when I say “write” I do mean analog. Studies have shown that people who commit pen to paper are more successful in achieving their goals than those using digital devices. Write down your goal and the steps to make it happen in the present such as: “I have lost 20 lbs by (the date)” rather than “I will lose 20 lbs by (the date)”.

Make each step measurable, which means quantifiable. Only that which can be measured will be achieved.

This plan can be in the form of an outline. Using the 20 lb weight loss resolution as an example, it might look something like this:

I have lost 20 lbs by (your date) by losing 2 lbs per week

Then write:

Week One (with its date) – I have lost 2 lbs

Then your strategies: for example:

• I eat lean protein 3 times a day and low-sugar veggies with each meal

• I do not eat carbohydrates or fried foods

• I drink 64 oz of water each day

• I do not drink alcohol, soda, juice

You can repeat this same plan every week until you reach your goal, adjusting as appropriate. I know it seems simplistic but reaching your goal in small specific chunks like this is very effective.

Include a plan for avoiding slip-ups. Like “I always eat before I go out with friends or family”. “I eat small portions every 3-4 hours”.

And a plan for when you do slip: write down why the deviation happened:

I was tired, I was hungry, I was emotional, I had cravings – and for each of those, write down a solution to avoid the same thing happening again. And remember, get right back on your horse; one slip does not need to be a slippery slope to failure.

And finally, get support from others.

Share your weight loss goal and what you need to do to achieve it as much as is appropriate with family, friends, co-workers, and especially your relationship partner. Ask them to help support you, or at the very least - not to sabotage you. And for those who do, you may want to take a break from them for a bit while you are taking care of yourself. Here are four tips to stay on track during this time of year.

How to Avoid Diet Pitfalls – Like a Valentine's Day Drop-Off!

A lot of clients on our BonVie Weight Loss program are in their new year stride; they have been following the protocol as designed and along with weekly coaching, are having great results. But here comes Valentine’s – one of the highest special occasions for consuming candy, especially chocolate. If you look at all those heart-shaped treats lining grocery and retail stores, that’s a lot of temptation to go off your program.

Four Tips to Stick to Your Diet at Valentine’s — and After!

1. Don’t buy it; don’t bring it home. Chances are that if it’s in the house you’ll eat it. If someone else in your house has chocolate or candy for the holiday, ask them to keep it hidden away. “Out of sight, out of mind”. Enlist help from those who are close to you to support you in staying on the program. And be sure not to shop when you are hungry!

2. If it’s gifted to you accept cordially – and then “re-gift” to a friend or family who is not concerned with their waistline and wellness. Women in particular can feel obligated to eat food and food gifts to please the giver, but this only sabotages you. A sincere thank you and appreciation will mean as much to that person as does the actual eating of the sentiment.

3. If you must indulge, take one bite, one piece, and then follow steps two and three above. Share the treat with ones who would enjoy it, ideally out of your household. If you have bought the indulgence at the store “by accident” have your one bite then take it to a neighbor, or the trash.

4. Reinforce this thought: stick to your program now, and know that at your next Valentine’s or any special occasion, you can indulge and enjoy. By then you will have all the guidelines you need from your BonVie coach for successful weight maintenance and enjoyment of eating.

Coach check-ins are critical for staying power; don’t try going it alone.

February can be a crucial month for staying on your weight loss path. After all, Spring Break is right around the corner!

Call us at the link below to find out more about what constitutes effective weight loss coaching.