I am writing this entry on the morning of July 5, the last day of the July 4th holiday weekend. Many of us attended parties/cook-outs with family/friends/neighbors, others were on vacations to the beach/mountains and perhaps some of you rested at home for the three day weekend. No matter which of those scenarios existed for you, there is probably a very good chance that many challenges were present to your weight control efforts. The gatherings with others were laden with alcohol and carbohydrate dishes traditional to these events, vacations usually bring with them a “vacationing” from dietary efforts and simply resting at home may also involve the mindset of “taking a break from dieting”.
In any given year, there will be holiday weekends, vacations, birthday celebrations and other finite periods of time when losing weight will not be a priority or easy. In fact, weight gain may be a likely outcome. So, how should we handle these time periods if our goal reach and maintain our healthy/happy weight?
The first step is to develop an “accountability” system, meaning that we need to see what happened on the scale. Human nature being what it is, often we will avoid the scale for fear of seeing what the “damages” were to our weight. Many people that are in the active visit phase of the SP Program will cancel their appointments that week as they feel “embarrassed” about the weight gain.
I recommend to our patients several action items: 1- Weigh yourself at home and record that weight once a week…same day/same time to keep consistency. 2- In those weeks that the weight goes up, obligate yourself to Phase 1 of the SP dietary plan for 3-7 days, and then record the weight as per your weekly schedule. 3- Adjust the phase of the dietary plan according to how the weight is progressing. 4- Come into our office for your FREE monthly body composition scan.
Do not stress or “beat yourself up” about challenging weeks when weight gain occurs. Keep steadfast on your post holiday accountability weight monitoring and then engage in the dietary phase that will reverse the weight gain quickly. The summer is still early…lots of vacation time will be used by many. We all can enjoy life yet adhere to a lifestyle that will keep us healthy to enjoy many more holidays and vacations. Remain accountable!
