During National Healthy Weight week, drop the diet and pick up healthy habits to keep your year on track. To maintain a healthy weight or lose weight to achieve a healthy weight, remember that having a positive body image is central to health and wellness. Stanford University School of Medicine found that out of all subjects with a positive body image, sixty-three percent were able to healthily and successfully lose weight. This number is staggeringly high compared to the only twenty-six percent of individuals with a negative body image that were able to lose weight. To maintain or gain a positive body image, remember that there are certain aspects of your body that affect weight that you cannot control like height and bone density.
- Remember that health is not determined by a number on a scale. It is defined by your habits and progression.
- Don’t try counting calories to lose weight. Try counting the aspects of yourself you like and want to enhance by maintaining or achieving a healthy weight.
- Set realistic health goals for yourself.
- Erase the “should”s and “could”s from your vocabulary. Maybe you should have worked out longer, but the point is that you worked out at all. That is something to celebrate.
- Enjoy the process of eating. Don’t eat too little or too much.
Don’t trick yourself into thinking that you will respect and love your body once you lose weight. Love yourself now and work toward achieving the healthiest lifestyle you can. Don’t just stop at one week; make healthy body weight and positive body image a part of your daily life.