9 Weight Loss Tips for Busy Moms and Dads

You start with the best of weight loss intentions: you pick up fresh veggies at your local market, print out healthy recipes and invest in an air fryer. You even dug out your sneakers and placed them front and center on the shoe rack for added inspiration. But then, life happens: work, laundry, kids needing help with school projects, errands and appointments. Add in a curveball: maybe your little ones are now learning remotely while you’re working from home. Suddenly, all of your get-healthy plans disappear to the bottom of your to-do list. Get back on track with these nine weight loss tips to help even the busiest moms and dads stay healthy:

Whether you’re a working or stay-at-home parent, have babies or school-aged kids, it can be tough to stay focused on eating right and working out when you’re so busy raising a family. But it is possible with some small steps, tweaks to your routine and a little extra help from Nutrisystem.

1. Simplify your morning meal.

You know you need breakfast to get your body going and stave off midday cravings. You also know that your mornings are often bananas: the dog needs walking, lunches need preparing and your kids have to get out to school on time (or plugged in and ready for online learning at home). Therefore, the chances of you having time to cook a healthy breakfast are slim to none. Enter: ready-to-eat options from Nutrisystem!

From warm egg sandwiches and tasty muffins to bagels and hearty bars, these delicious breakfasts require minimal to no prep. They’re perfectly portioned for weight loss and can help busy moms and dads have a successful day. Check out these six comfort food breakfast options from the Nutrisystem menu, then click here to stock up! >

2. Drink more water.

According to Harvard Health Publishing, the benefits of drinking water are plentiful. It aids in healthy digestion, protects organs, regulates body temperature, cushions joints and more. Water may also help with weight loss: people sometimes confuse thirst for hunger, when all you might need is a glass of water to feel full. Plus, it’s important to drink water during exercise to replace the fluids you lose when you sweat, according to Mayo Clinic. Granted, when you’re busy running around, the last thing on your mind is your hydration level. “People often forget to drink water when they are busy,” says University of California, Berkley. Let your phone do the thinking for you: set an alarm to chime every hour—and take that as your cue to drink. The NuMi app by Nutrisystem has a great “Reminder” feature that can help! Check out the other simple hydration hacks below to help you drink more water:

10 Simple Hacks to Help You Drink More Water

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3. Work out in 10-minute sets.

Thirty minutes of exercise every day is the goal. However, carving out that chunk of time doesn’t always happen. Ten minutes is much more manageable—and if you do it three times a day, you get the same health benefits. According to Mayo Clinic, regular physical activity can help with weight control, ward off disease, boost mood, increase energy and improve sleep. Check out these 10 easy home workouts you can do in your living room—no special equipment or training needed and each takes about 10 minutes. And if you’re a mom who has a new little bundle at home, here are some ways to sneak in exercise when you’re busy with the baby. >

4. Forgive a slip-up.

Like you tell your kids to learn from a mistake and just do better next time, you should extend yourself the same courtesy. One misstep on your weight loss journey should not pave the way to a full-blown binge. Give yourself a break from perfection and just consider every decision you make moving forward as another chance to do something healthy.

5. Keep healthy food within sight.

That could be a bunch of bananas on your kitchen counter or a stash of Nutrisystem White Cheddar Popcorn on your work desk. Not only does it save you the time rifling through the pantry or fridge for a snack, but it could also help you lose weight: a Cornell study found that women who kept a bowl of fruit where they could see it weighed an average of 13 pounds less than those who didn’t. The study also found that normal-weight women were more likely to have a designated cupboard for snack items than those who are obese. This is one of our favorite simple weight loss tricks for busy moms and dads.

Bored at Home? 10 Seriously Easy Activities to Stay Healthy

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6. Stand up.

It’s that simple to burn some extra calories. Consider this: in an hour, the average 170-pound person burns over 70 more calories by simply standing instead of sitting, says StartStanding.org. Take any opportunity you can to get up off your chair and onto your feet—such as when you’re helping the kids with homework, talking on the phone or during a staff meeting with the office. That little movement not only helps you lose weight, but it may also help reduce your risk of more serious conditions. According to Mayo Clinic, “Research has linked sitting for long periods of time with a number of health concerns. They include obesity and a cluster of conditions — increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels — that make up metabolic syndrome. Too much sitting overall and prolonged periods of sitting also seem to increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer.”

7. Make smart fast-food choices.

Some days the best you can do is drive-through for dinner, and that’s quite all right. An occasional fast food meal or restaurant take-out on particularly crazy days won’t derail your diet. Just be sure to choose wisely: John Hopkins Medicine recommends choosing grilled chicken instead of fried and a kids’ size French fry instead of large. You should also ask for special sauces on the side so that you can better control your calorie intake. Check out our handy guide to better understand what you should order and avoid while ordering fast food.

8. Opt for a one-pot meal.

For the nights when you crave a home-cooked meal but are short on time, these piping hot, one-dish meals are an excellent dinner choice. From seafood paella to slow cooker chicken gumbo and butternut squash turkey chili, you can toss each recipe together in a flash (and clean-up is quick!). Plus, these dishes are balanced with protein, fiber and complex carbohydrates that fit perfectly into your Nutrisystem plan.

9 5-Ingredient Recipes for (Insanely) Busy People

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9. Give yourself a bedtime.

Just like you do for your kids, create your own sleeping schedule to go to bed at night and wake up in the morning—and stick to it every day. That’s one way to help your body gets the rest it needs, says the National Sleep Foundation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends getting seven to eight hours of sleep every night. Of course, when you’re cramming a million to-dos into not enough hours, you may be tempted to stay up late on some nights, or even wake up super early on other mornings to get everything done. You need enough quality shut-eye for lots of reasons—one of which is to help keep your weight loss on track. Skimp on sleep and you may lack the energy to stay active or crave sugary and fatty foods that will help you stay awake. Click here to learn more about the importance of good sleep and get seven tips for a better slumber! >

Looking for more weight loss advice for busy dads? Check out these seven tips for maintaining a healthy “dad bod” >

The post 9 Weight Loss Tips for Busy Moms and Dads appeared first on The Leaf.

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I’m so sick of crash diets and my “yo-yoing”weight. I’ve lost 50lbs in 6 months following intermittent fasting and working on sustainable healthy loss.

I’ve done yo-yo diets my whole life

• I’ve done swings of 80 pounds before

• I’ve now been doing intermittent fasting for 25 weeks and I feel strong with my commitment and here’s what I’m doing:

• Now that I’m older and tired of the yo-yo I understand that long-term weight loss is not about following strict guidelines but legitimately building habits

• I got to 265lbs by years of building bad habits

• So what the 25 weeks have looked like for me is for the first three weeks I did nothing but fast 16:8

• I did not change my diet I did not track calories I did not do any crazy workouts

• Focused on building the one habit of fasting

• After three weeks I started Tracking my calories. With my fitness pal My username is IFwithRyan If you send me a request on there you can see what I eat every day

• At the three week mark I also started some light exercise mostly weightlifting. Three days a week

• Another reason I hadn’t changed my diet is it’s just too much takes too much will power

• And at about the six-week mark after I had been tracking calories consistently for three weeks, I started to try to hit a calorie target so I would know that I was in a deficit every day

• And I would say for probably about the last 18 weeks I’ve just been doing the same thing:

1) workouts 3 to 4 days a week

2) trying to hit about 2400 cal a day.

3) I’m not following any specific diet

• I still have fast food once a week sometimes twice a week

• But the biggest thing is…. I don’t feel mentally drained

• If I feel strong and want to add another healthy habit I can do that

• I would say in the last-few months I’ve easily had 20 days where I was eating more than 4000 cal a day

• But there are also days where after a cheat day in order to balance it out I’ll do like a 20 to 23 hour fast and only eat 12 to 1500 cal to balance it out for the week. And that keeps me mentally strong

• I don’t feel deprived

• So I would say if you’re just starting intermittent fasting do nothing else for the next three weeks but fast for 16 hours a day eat what you want when your time is up. Once you have a habit of fasting and it’s like second nature then start tracking your calories

• You will eventually have to track calories to lose weight but don’t try to do it all today

• And once you start tracking calories eat the same but track, so you know where you’re at

• Then start making adjustments. It’s going to take longer but if I were to tell you you can lose a half a pound to a pound a week for the next year and a half but then you’ll maintain that weight for the rest of your life, versus going crazy and losing 75 pounds in three months but then two years from now being right back where you are which would you do?

• Weight loss is much more about habit building than it is knowing the perfect way to do it

• Don’t get overwhelmed by taking on too much... will power is a limited resource

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This is the bad place (if you get the reference)

I really was waiting to post a happy update here because lately all I do is post negative things. But there was some good stuff in the last two months. On Oct 10th i weighed in at 146 which was awesome coming from 152 two weeks prior.. which made me feel awesome ! Then I made a side by side comparison of my face before I started my weight loss journey last may and then most recent pic . Really showed a difference. And then today (Oct 27th) I'm back to 151. Basically the past month or so truly meant nothing. Im back to square one.

I've been doing HIIT 3-4× week and biking hikingand strength training when im not doing HIIT. counting calories. Eating very basic meals. Salmon, veggies and quinoa. Spagetti squash. No snacks. Things were good. I felt confident and good about myself for the first time in ages. Was keeping weight off. I even stopped weighing myself so much which was for me an amazing achievement.

Then I felt like I deserved a cheat meal. Went out with friends. Had some snacks during the week (nothing crazy, healthy stuff like Greek yogurt with fruit and nuts and shit) and here i fucking am. Honestly it feels like im on the show the good place and this is my torture.

What I have come to think is..is it worth it? Should I continue on this weight loss journey where my only success comes from being extremely restricted ? Honestly its fine for a bit but it doesn't truly feel sustainable. I am fine with exercise but I don't think a restrictive diet is sustainable . I will always want to go out with friends. And once I start down that path of not being 100% restrictive I will gain weight back as is shown now. So then the restrictive eating truly serves no purpose. Should I give up now , accept that I'm a little chunky and didn't meet my goal weight and just live my life ? I'm not throwing a pity party im really trying to gauge if continuing is worth the effort...

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Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Tuesday, 27 October 2020? Start here!

Today is your Day 1?

Welcome to r/Loseit!

So you aren’t sure of how to start? Don’t worry! “How do I get started?” is our most asked question. r/Loseit has helped our users lose over 1,000,000 recorded pounds and these are the steps that we’ve found most useful for getting started.

Why you’re overweight

Our bodies are amazing (yes, yours too!). In order to survive before supermarkets, we had to be able to store energy to get us through lean times, we store this energy as adipose fat tissue. If you put more energy into your body than it needs, it stores it, for (potential) later use. When you put in less than it needs, it uses the stored energy. The more energy you have stored, the more overweight you are. The trick is to get your body to use the stored energy, which can only be done if you give it less energy than it needs, consistently.

Before You Start

The very first step is calculating your calorie needs. You can do that HERE. This will give you an approximation of your calorie needs for the day. The next step is to figure how quickly you want to lose the fat. One pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. So to lose 1 pound of fat per week you will need to consume 500 calories less than your TDEE (daily calorie needs from the link above). 750 calories less will result in 1.5 pounds and 1000 calories is an aggressive 2 pounds per week.

Tracking

Here is where it begins to resemble work. The most efficient way to lose the weight you desire is to track your calorie intake. This has gotten much simpler over the years and today it can be done right from your smartphone or computer. r/loseit recommends an app like MyFitnessPal, Loseit! (unaffiliated), or Cronometer. Create an account and be honest with it about your current stats, activities, and goals. This is your tracker and no one else needs to see it so don’t cheat the numbers. You’ll find large user created databases that make logging and tracking your food and drinks easy with just the tap of the screen or the push of a button. We also highly recommend the use of a digital kitchen scale for accuracy. Knowing how much of what you're eating is more important than what you're eating. Why? This may explain it.

Creating Your Deficit

How do you create a deficit? This is up to you. r/loseit has a few recommendations but ultimately that decision is yours. There is no perfect diet for everyone. There is a perfect diet for you and you can create it. You can eat less of exactly what you eat now. If you like pizza you can have pizza. Have 2 slices instead of 4. You can try lower calorie replacements for calorie dense foods. Some of the communities favorites are cauliflower rice, zucchini noodles, spaghetti squash in place of their more calorie rich cousins. If it appeals to you an entire dietary change like Keto, Paleo, Vegetarian.

The most important thing to remember is that this selection of foods works for you. Sustainability is the key to long term weight management success. If you hate what you’re eating you won’t stick to it.

Exercise

Is NOT mandatory. You can lose fat and create a deficit through diet alone. There is no requirement of exercise to lose weight.

It has it’s own benefits though. You will burn extra calories. Exercise is shown to be beneficial to mental health and creates an endorphin rush as well. It makes people feel awesome and has been linked to higher rates of long term success when physical activity is included in lifestyle changes.

Crawl, Walk, Run

It can seem like one needs to make a 180 degree course correction to find success. That isn’t necessarily true. Many of our users find that creating small initial changes that build a foundation allows them to progress forward in even, sustained, increments.

Acceptance

You will struggle. We have all struggled. This is natural. There is no tip or trick to get through this though. We encourage you to recognize why you are struggling and forgive yourself for whatever reason that may be. If you overindulged at your last meal that is ok. You can resolve to make the next meal better.

Do not let the pursuit of perfect get in the way of progress. We don’t need perfect. We just want better.

Additional resources

Now you’re ready to do this. Here are more details, that may help you refine your plan.

• Quick Start Guide - Build your foundation!
• Loseit Compendium - Frame it out!
• FAQ - Answers to our most Frequently Asked Questions!

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Advice on switching to maintanace?

Hey guys, so ive reached my gw of 65kg, down from 85kg and am planning on moving to maintanance. My plan is to stay somewhere between 63-67 kg so some weight gain and weight loss isnt the end of the world. This means i can lose 1kg one month and regain it the next etc. I checked my TDEE now and for a man that is 170cm and 65kg i burn around 1930kcal a day since im super stationary. My question is however, is this number accurate? Could it be that i burn much less (especially since im coming off a strong deficit of around 700-900kcal a day)? I dont know if deficits lower my energy consumption. Also should i expect some water gain now that i start eating more? Also I wonder if the calculators sedentary is the same as my sedentary if that makes sense. Thanks in advance!

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Excerpt from my weight loss journal (deleted original post for security reasons)

It’s honestly surreal. I look in the mirror and don’t recognize the reflection staring back. People call me tiny now. A coworker assumed I wore a small jacket the other day. My boyfriend can pick me up with ease and twirl me around, it’s like a fairy tale sometimes. It doesn’t seem real.

Sometimes when I meet new people as this thinner version of myself, I feel that people aren’t meeting the real me. They aren’t meeting the girl that was humbled by a society that desperately tried to shut her out, to shut her up.

I loved myself then and I love myself now. Simultaneously, I hate myself all the same. Weight loss is a trip. It isn’t always rewarding. It isn’t always rainbows. This is honest. This is real.

Body dysmorphia is not.

I’m not used to this new me. Sometimes I feel like I’m going through this weird identity crisis.

What do I wear? Men notice me now. People notice me now. Life is easier and far more forgiving in a smaller body. I will say this though, I deserved love always. I’m glad to finally be giving that love to myself, just somedays I wish others had done the same courtesy for the girl on the left. (Photo link of transformation below)

My physical being may have changed, but this soul of mine remains the same.

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First day starting at 320

Today I have started the hard road to weight loss. I have pulmonary fibrosis and I have gotten to the point that every day functions have become almost impossible because of my breathing. I am scared that if I don’t make this change I will end up on oxygen or worse die because my lungs can no longer keep up with my body. Today was rough. I started nutrisystem after talking to nurses at pulmonary rehab who recommended. It feels like I am going from 0 to 60 with the changing of my eating habits and that is hard. I feel like the only thing my mind can think about is food even when I try distracting myself. Eventually I think I will have to do baritirc surgery because I can barely move and I need the weight off faster as my lungs grow worse. But I want to make some changes for me before that day.

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