Life Taking a Detour? How to Hit The Reset Button This Spring

Spring is the season of renewal. You can see it outside in the fresh leaves on the trees and the flowers in bloom. Now is the perfect time for you to get back to feeling well and enjoying your life.

With so much going on in the world, we’ve all been struggling with disruptions and distractions. That can make it extra hard for us to take care of our physical, mental and emotional health.

No matter what you’ve been going through, you can hit the reset button this spring and get back on track to feeling and looking your best. Here are a few hints to help you get started.

Do one thing.

You can’t fix everything that’s troubling you instantly. But you can take a step in the right direction by choosing one small thing that you can manage and begin doing it.

You don’t need to make a big commitment. Go with simple choices, such as walking your dog outdoors for at least 10 minutes on nice spring days or trying a new healthy recipe every week.

Another easy first step? Sign up for a Nutrisystem weight loss plan. >

Get energized.

Dark, dreary winter days can make us feel like hibernating, or at least sitting on the couch and resting. If you’ve spent the last few months laying low, now’s the time to get active again.

Build 30 minutes of daily activity into your life. If you can’t do it all at once, try 10 minutes of exercise three times throughout the day. While exercise may tire you out at first, within a couple of weeks, you’ll actually become more energetic as you build up your stamina.

Be sure you have the fuel you need by eating regular portions of lean protein such as chicken breast, fish or eggs. You can learn all about those PowerFuels here! >

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Refresh your routine.

Habits are behaviors we do without thinking about them. If you’ve fallen into bad habits—skipping breakfast, for example—spring is a great time to refresh your daily routine.

According to research, published in Frontiers in Psychology, “habit formation increased substantially over the course of three months, especially for participants who consistently performed the desired behavior during this time. ”

Look at the habits that are keeping you from feeling your best and try to turn them into new, good habits. For example, if your mornings are too hectic to make a meal, prepare “overnight” oatmeal recipes before you go to bed. Sticking to these new actions throughout the spring season (about three months) can increase the likelihood of them turning into a long-term. natural habit. Consistency is key!

Sleep well.

More activity helps you get back on track in spring, but so does better rest. Sleeping for the recommended seven to eight hours a night improves your overall health and supports your weight loss goals.

To get better sleep, skip scrolling through social media one hour before you turn the lights out. Reacting to the posts stimulates your brain when you want it to quiet down. What’s more, the light from your phone or tablet suppresses your body’s production of melatonin, a hormone that controls your body’s sleep cycles.

When you don’t get enough sleep, you are more likely to choose unhealthy foods and to overeat in general. Learn more about the sleep-weight loss connection here! >

Invest in your health.

You may have heard a healthy lifestyle takes a lot of money. Investing in your health actually saves you because being overweight increases your healthcare costs, makes you more likely to miss work because of illness, and bulks up your grocery expenses with low-quality food.

A Nutrisystem weight loss plan brings you meals and snacks that are nourishing and filling in just the right portions. That means you get just what you need and there’s no wasted food. You can also keep within your grocery budget by shopping for fresh fruits and vegetables that are in season (you have so many choices in spring!). Be sure to also check out our suggestions for buying low-cost PowerFuels and SmartCarbs.

Can Nutrisystem Save You Money? The Answer May Surprise You

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Making time.

For so many people, time is the most precious of resources. Taking care of your health can go on the back burner when daily life is always hectic.

A Nutrisystem weight loss plan can be your solution. You get meals delivered to your door so you cut down on time spent shopping for food. Your meals and snacks are ready to eat in minutes, so you don’t have to spend hours in the kitchen preparing healthy food you’ll love eating.

With all of that extra time, you can get active or treat yourself to some well-earned rest. Craving calm? Here are five spring-inspired self-care activities to try during that extra time! >

Take back control.

Life brings you plenty to be concerned about. You can stop worrying about your weight just by signing up for Nutrisystem.

Simply choose the foods that you like from a menu full of tempting meals and snacks. You don’t have to count “points” or cook every single meal. Nutrisystem meets you where you are with plans that are easy to follow. You can begin to see results in as little as your first week. Now you’re headed toward becoming the best you can be!

Ready for a spring reset? Get started with a Nutrisystem plan today! >

The Nutrisystem Spring Weight Loss Guide

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The post Life Taking a Detour? How to Hit The Reset Button This Spring appeared first on The Leaf.

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15 lbs from goal and stuck - should I just be satisfied?

Hi! I, like lots of other folks put on weight the last few years. I went all the way up to 191lbs and that's when I decided enough is enough, and to do something about it. I started last March, and got down to 155. My initial goal weight was 140, but I just can't seem to get below 155 (give or take a few lbs in both directions).

I took all of February off and just did maintenance. I started back trying to lose again in early March, but the scale has not moved.

I use Happy Scale daily (at the same time), and track with LoseIt!. I have my calories set to maintenance, but have been eating between 300-500 below that, as I am okay with a slower weight loss.

I don't mind the way I look right now, minus a little pooch in my lower belly.

I get 10,000 steps weekdays and 20,000 steps most weekend days. I'm sure the answer is to just increase my caloric deficit if I want to lose more, I'm just not sure I want to right now. Is it okay to just keep maintaining and not hit my goal weight?

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Being a teenager in the era of the "body positivity" movement is the worst thing ever

Edit: Thank you for the gold!

I (16F) used to be overweight. I had hypothyroidism and an emotional eating issue that led to my rapid weight gain. My entire life I had always been a little bit chubby, but most of it was baby fat and I was still considered to be of a healthy weight. It never really hit me how big I was until I developed an eating disorder. It started with models who talked about eating a shit ton of pizza and junk and yet they were still skinny, meanwhile it felt like I breathed next to a pizza and gained weight, even though I would usually just eat an entire large pizza BY MYSELF, meanwhile now I eat 2 slices of a small and I'm knocked out, but obviously in my little brain I didn't comprehend that the amount of food I was eating was FAR too much and that simply reducing my portions would've made me lose a lot of weight. So I fell into the cycle of unhealthily restricting calories. That was during the time when Victoria's Secret models were still a thing and were still idolized.

Then 2016 came around and "body positivity" was the new thing. All these obese and "plus size" models talking about how you can be happy in your own body no matter your weight or no matter how your body looks. Sounds good right? WRONG. Nobody ever mentioned how body positivity was created for those with "deformities" or disabilities that affected how they looked that they COULDN'T CONTROL, so people with missing limbs for example. Now I got sucked into this whole movement and shifted from my pr* an* forums to "body positivity" forums and "big is beautiful" forums, where random adults would tell me that teenagers are stupid and that I shouldn't worry about my weight because when I'm an adult I'll realize "men like bigger women" or some other nonsense. Now obviously I believed it, and I believed it for a while. I believed that birth control could make you the size of a hot air balloon or that my hypothyroidism was going to make me fat anyways so why even bother. That lasted until I noticed none of the "plus sized" models that were supposedly similar to me, actually looked like me. Most of them, even at their larger sizes still had perfectly shaped figures and slim faces, like Ashley Graham or Iskra Lawrence, and I realized I actually didn't love myself, I was just lying to myself to hide the fact that I was unhappy.

There's nothing fun in not being able to find your size in stores, or not wanting to participate in sports because you're afraid you'll look like a flailing whale, there's nothing fun in barely being able to climb a flight of stairs without wheezing or having a large hawaiian pizza be the highlight of your week. I realized that I was unhappy and my health was deteriorating.

I started watching YouTubers like Natacha Oceane or Coffee (a Chinese YouTuber) who I learned a lot from and taught me how to take better care of my health and be more in tune with my body, and I managed to lose over 30lbs and am now at a healthy weight, and with that weight loss I was able to completely reverse my hypothyroidism and my thyroid is now at a healthy size. Even just thinking about my habits and the things I believed back then and just how easy it is for teenagers like me to be influenced by these people makes me angry. Sure you may not be insecure about your big thighs or bony elbows, but you don't "love your body", you hate your organs and bones that have to work extra hard to simply function, or your failing organs that can barely function to the point where you feel dizzy even when sitting down or your bones crack with almost every movement and THAT is your body.

Sure, some people are born "naturally skinny" or "big boned", but that doesn't make you extremely underweight or overweight/obese and there are even different healthy weights based on bones structure which is how I'm weighed at my hospital. And sure you might have a health issue that makes you underweight or overweight, but people with those health issues don't just accept their deteriorating health and start telling people it's okay to neglect your body because of that. I wish more people my age or even just in general understood that being on or being close to the extreme end of those spectrums is not healthy, and that physical and mental health are ALWAYS the priority above physical appearance.

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Does anyone else feel like they like to do it better alone?

For years my sister had begged me to go on walks with her and I would always refuse, and when I did I would be over it like 10-15 minutes in. Now I can do an hour long walk easy. Do you know what changed? I did it myself. I guess I’m just stubborn because the only time I’ve ever seen results in my weight loss was when I did it MYSELF. I didn’t listen to my family or friends to give me advice I decided I wanted this for me. I work out alone, I walk alone I eat alone. As much as I love the support of the people in my life who love me, some things I just need to do myself. Anyone else?

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What is your greatest strength and greatest weakness in your weight loss?

I’m curious about the different variations and if people generally have the same strengths and weaknesses when it comes to weight loss. I’ll be honest and say I don’t feel like I have a strength but I’ll dig and try to find what may be close to a strength.

Weakness: All or nothing mentally. Small changes are “useless” in my mind because they don’t result in instant visible changes. If I fall off the wagon, I dive head first into the abyss. I’m aware this is wrong btw, that’s why it’s a weakness.

Strength: Intermittent fasting comes fairly naturally to me. So it’s easier to condense my food and still not feel deprived the entire day.

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Could use some words of support... 😟

Over the past year and a half I've been trying to lose the same 15 pounds. I tend to get from 130lbs to 126lbs and immediately rebound back to 130-ish. I am almost at 126lbs again and already struggling to stay under my calorie goal... plus I just started a retail job (I was a homemaker until now and easily able to walk 5 miles a day) and now my available time for walks has diminished a lot. It's frustrating. And because I am so tired and with little time left for my hobbies, my body desperately wants to default to snacking to cope. I haven't been able to go lower than 126 in months. I literally put my snacks under lock and key, but because I'm petite, it takes SO little for me to gain.

I guess I'm just looking for some support/motivation, not sure if posts like these are allowed and I hope it's ok, I've never posted to a weight loss/fitness subreddit before because my goal seems like it should be easy compared to others, like I shouldn't be struggling. It's such a small goal and still such a struggle, even though I did it once before. I know I can do this. I guess I just would like to hear it from someone else.

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"Accidentally" lost almost 25 lbs after drastically cutting sugar

I've dealt with binge eating since I was a young child. Even if weight wasn't a factor, binge eating sucks and causes me a lot of distress. It's taken years to quit and it's been a long time since I could consume the mega-binges that I used to (like entire pizzas plus candy and chips and more in a single sitting). Even without huge binges, I knew I needed to tweak my habits more. I've been working on avoiding/practically eliminating hyper-processed foods.

While my sugar intake has been lower than the average person's for many years, I still worked to eat less added sugar. Doing so started to reduce my sweet tooth and change my tastebuds. Over the past few months I aimed to keep added sugar to 25 g or less per day (the amount recommended by the American Heart Association). Now I have about a teaspoon of honey most days and a few squares of dark chocolate. My weed edibles add a few grams of sugar, and I'm looking to find a lower-sugar product for my CBD/THC (suggestions welcome!). I consume other sweets rarely and usually only have a craving for something like ice cream in the few days before my period, but now I'm satisfied with a few spoonfuls, not a pint at a time like I used to.

I noticed my clothes were a little looser, so I stepped on the scale a few weeks ago to find I'd lost almost 25 lbs since I last weighed myself about 3 months prior. I've had a lot of reduction in joint pain, too, that can't just be attributed to the weight loss since I've dealt with pain at all weights since young childhood. I wouldn't have honestly thought that sugar made that big of a difference with joint pain, but it really seems like it's directly related for me.

I do not eat some perfect "clean" diet. In fact, one of the changes I needed to make was to eat less fibrous produce as my habit of "volume eating" veggies upset my stomach--now I eat a more reasonable amount of produce (about 5-7 servings of veggies/fruits each day). I eat 3 vegetarian meals a day--including whole grains and beans/legumes--with no snacks. This isn't because I'm aiming to be regimented, but rather this is what my digestive tract can handle and what makes me feel best.

I won't be setting a goal weight and I don't know how much weight I will lose. But regardless of future outcomes, less sugar has made an enormous difference and I don't miss it at all.

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