My Doctor Online The Permanente Medical Group
Are you having back pain with any of the following?
- Severe pain, weakness or tingling in your leg(s).
- Difficulty stopping urination or loss of control of bladder or bowels.
- Unexplained fever, nausea or vomiting.
- A history of cancer or unexplained weight loss.
We understand that you are experiencing one or more of the health issues that might be impacting your back pain.
We recommend that you discuss these health issues with your doctor before proceeding with this program.
Once you are cleared by your doctor to do this program, we hope it helps you find relief from your back pain.
Weight Loss Strategies that Work [Read/Print full article]
Journaling
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Write it down! We suggest keeping a written account of your eating and exercise habits. Research shows that people who track exercise and food are twice as likely to successfully lose weight compared with those who don't. You also may want to include your thoughts, feelings, successes, and challenges in your journal.
It may seem tedious. You may think you are carefully monitoring your exercise and eating habits anyway, but putting it on paper or tracking it online takes your weight loss plan to a whole new level. It makes you accountable. Committing to your actions forces you to honestly analyze your behaviors. How long were you really on the exercise bike and at what intensity level? Was it a handful of chips or the entire bag? Reading back, you can identify areas where you got off track and make plans to do things differently next time.
Try online tools or mobile applications, such as Lose It! for help tracking your progress towards your weight goals. Online tools are a great way to monitor your daily meals, physical activity and calories.
Your eating journal
Your eating journal can include questions to answer each time you eat a meal or snack. Or it can be in a table format with columns to fill in. Your journal should include as many of the following as possible:
- What you ate and how much
- When and where you ate it
- How hungry you were before eating and afterward
- Why you ate the food
- Who you were with (and whether or not they influenced you)
- What kind of mood you were in
- Whether or not the food fits into your eating plan
- If it doesn't fit into your eating plan, how you change another meal or snack to compensate for the extra calories
Your exercise journal
An exercise journal can help you track your exercise. It is best to include:
- What kind of activity you did
- What time you started and stopped
- How much time you spent exercising
- Intensity level (using a 1 to 10 scale, where 1 is low intensity, 5 is moderate, and 10 is high intensity)
- Notes about what made the workout especially good or bad (weather, walking route, listening to music, preworkout snack, etc.)
Thoughts and feelings
Times of change are perfect for tracking your thoughts and feelings. It can be helpful to write a few words (or more) each day about your challenges, setbacks, achievements, hopes, motivations, or simply your emotions. Looking back over time can help you see trends and patterns during your weight loss journey.
Additional References:
- External Link to Track Your Eating and Exercise with Lose It!
Goal Setting
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Goal setting helps you create specific targets to aim for. A written plan makes your goals clear and real. You will gain momentum, confidence, and determination each time a goal is achieved, no matter how small it is. Reaching goals one by one can be the beginning of an avalanche of successes all directed toward one outcome – permanent change.
SMART is a useful acronym in thinking about your goals. Goals should be:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Time oriented
Weak goal
For example, "I will lose 2 pounds this week" is not specific or time oriented. The goal focuses on the outcome rather than the specific actions that you will take to reach the goal. Since it doesn't say how the 2 pounds will be lost, it probably is not a realistic goal and may set you up for failure. Each failure can bring negative feelings that affect your future success.
Better goals
A better goal would be, "I will take a brisk 15-minute walk at level 6 intensity at 6:30 am each morning this week."
Handling Setbacks
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With any weight loss program, it's likely you will have slipups from time to time or times where you feel you have lost control. It's important not to be too hard on yourself if you make a poor choice, overeat, have a bad day, or skip a couple of workouts. Blaming yourself or getting discouraged will lead to low self-confidence and make it more challenging to get back on track. Instead, focus your energy on plans to avoid the same mistake next time.
If the problem is an overall dip in motivation, try the following:
- Remind yourself of all the reasons you started on this weight loss journey. Write down your long-term hopes and aspirations for yourself.
- Look at your goals. Is it time to make changes? Maybe you set your sights too high to start. Rethink your goals and make sure they are achievable. That way, you can end each day having made some progress and feeling more motivated about tomorrow.
- If you feel you haven't lost enough weight, focus on the positives to keep you motivated. The scale doesn't tell the whole story. Are you eating healthier, exercising more, feeling fitter, more energetic, or more confident?
- Mix it up and add some variety. Buy a new healthy cookbook and make new nutritious meals. Try a new type of physical activity. Change your schedule around. Start getting up 30 minutes earlier and walking every morning. Sign up for a new motivational or skill-building class or seminar.
Keep It Off
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If you have already lost weight, congratulations! You have taken great strides to improve your overall health and reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.
Unfortunately, research shows that a large number of people who lose weight end up regaining all or some of it back over time. You can increase your chances of maintaining a healthy weight by preparing for setbacks and learning essential habits for long-term success.
Keep up the good work!
The biggest reason people regain weight is because they stop following their eating and physical activity plans. Often, this is because the changes a person made were unsustainable. If you can't maintain the healthy habits that helped you lose weight, you will not be able to maintain the weight loss.
To make sure changes stick, choose foods and activities that you enjoy so that healthy eating and regular exercise become things you look forward to every day. Ward off boredom with your routine:
- Vary your diet and activities to keep yourself interested. If you normally walk, try riding a bike or swimming on weekends. Add a new fruit or vegetable to your menu.
- Learn a new sport or try resistance training to mix up your workouts.
- Eat fresh foods that are in season so your menu stays interesting.
The changes you make to take weight off need to be comfortable and doable for you over the long term. It is a lifestyle choice, not a temporary change. This is why we recommend making small changes one at a time. Small changes allow you to fully establish one new habit before adopting another. Changes are most likely to stick when you truly enjoy your new way of life.
Make the change stick
Researchers have studied the behaviors of people who have maintained weight loss and found clues about what works long-term.
One finding is that the longer you keep it off, the more likely you are to be able to maintain the weight loss throughout your life. It all goes back to making those healthy behaviors a part of your life.
In particular, those who keep the weight off report the following:
- Getting about 1 full hour of exercise every day. The most common activity is walking.
- Maintaining a diet that is low in calories and fat.
- Eating breakfast on a regular basis.
- Weighing themselves at least once per week to monitor their weight.
- Watching less than 10 hours of TV a week.
And there is more good news. Keeping the weight off isn't just about being thinner. Almost all of those who maintain their weight loss report improvements in their energy, mobility, mood, self-confidence, and overall health.
Related Health Tools:
Classes and Coaching
- Wellness Coaching Wellness Coaching
Interactive Programs
- Online Health Coach Online Health Coach
- Take a total health assessment with Succeed™ Take a total health assessment with Succeed™
Personal Logs and Diaries
- Physical Activity Log Physical Activity Log
- Seven Day Food Diary Seven Day Food Diary
If you have an emergency medical condition, call 911 or go to the nearest hospital. An emergency medical condition is any of the following: (1) a medical condition that manifests itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity (including severe pain) such that you could reasonably expect the absence of immediate medical attention to result in serious jeopardy to your health or body functions or organs; (2) active labor when there isn't enough time for safe transfer to a Plan hospital (or designated hospital) before delivery, or if transfer poses a threat to your (or your unborn child's) health and safety, or (3) a mental disorder that manifests itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity such that either you are an immediate danger to yourself or others, or you are not immediately able to provide for, or use, food, shelter, or clothing, due to the mental disorder.
This information is not intended to diagnose health problems or to take the place of specific medical advice or care you receive from your physician or other health care professional. If you have persistent health problems, or if you have additional questions, please consult with your doctor. If you have questions or need more information about your medication, please speak to your pharmacist. Kaiser Permanente does not endorse the medications or products mentioned. Any trade names listed are for easy identification only.