Stop worrying about things you have no control over, like the weather. Let it be what it will be. Focus on what you can control. Your own behavior.
Yeah, yeah, I know. You’re thinking that your weight is something you haven’t been able to control. However, you have a much better shot at controlling your weight than you do worrying about the fate of the new world order, and with the right approach, I guarantee you can control your weight. I know, because after 25 years of obesity, I finally figured it out, dropped 140 pounds, and I’ve maintained an ideal body weight now for 30 years.
Believe me, you can start feeling in control in a matter of days, and that will feel a lot better than the way you’ve been feeling about politics, and it may even help you feel better about our political situation!
Here’s how:
1) First, accept the scientific fact that your body weight is a result of your energy balance. Eat more calories than your burn, and you’ll gain. Eat fewer than you burn, and you’ll lose. Over time, when you’ve created a cumulative deficit of 3500 calories, you’ll lose a pound of fat. Keep it up, and you’ll lose weight until there’s nothing left, or until you stop undereating.
2) Now, find out how many calories you burn per day. It’s easy. Go to calculator.net and plug in the data regarding the weight you want to be (not your current weight), and don’t use a phony activity level. Use the activity level you are accustomed to and what you know you’ll be able to maintain. The figure you are shown as the “Calories/day to maintain your weight” is the level you need to eat below to be fit. That’s what I call “undereating”. Eating more than you need is overeating.
3) Start keeping track of the calories you are putting in your body. Don’t diet. Don’t eat diet food. Eat the way you normally eat and start learning why you’ve developed a weight problem. You’ll be amazed to learn how much you have been overeating. Don’t be embarrassed. You are not alone. All Americans have been overeating. That’s why we have an obesity epidemic. After a week of normal eating and learning, start making changes to create a calorie deficit eating the food you are going to be eating the rest of your life.
4) When you undereat with a cumulative deficit of 3500 calories per week, you’ll lose a pound per week. If you undereat more intensely than that, you’ll lose more, faster.
You’ll start feeling better, more in-control, right away.
You’ll probably start losing weight right away, even before you start seriously undereating, just by becoming more aware of what you are doing. Focus on keeping accurate accounting instead of trying to reduce right away, and you’ll find that things will fall into place.
You’ll lose weight, but more importantly, you won’t feel so beaten by our out-of-control world.
I don’t want to give you the impression that permanent weight loss is as simple as what I’ve directed you to do here, but this will get you started in the right direction. Read the rest of my work, including my book, now an audiobook, to get the whole picture.
My clients love losing weight, but they feel so much better in other ways too. You will also. And that’s what we need, isn’t it? If your happiness depends on you being able to control the world, you’re in big trouble. You need a way to be happy regardless of what’s happening in the world. Stop worrying about things you have no control over, like the weather. Let it be what it will be. Focus on what you can control.
William Anderson is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor who specializes in weight loss, eating disorders and addictions. He was an obese heavy smoker and workaholic until his early thirties, and burned out, but survived and changed direction. He changed in many ways, among them, losing 140 pounds permanently. Health, in a holistic way, is now his mission. He is the author of The Anderson Method of Permanent Weight Loss.
Originally published at www.huffingtonpost.com on January 1, 2017.
Originally published at medium.com