Weight loss is on everyone’s mind. It seems like just about everybody wants to lose some weight. But what’s the best way? And more importantly, how do you keep it off? The secret might just be in your eating habits and eating lifestyle more than what diet you adopt.
Before continuing I have to say that I’m “diet agnostic”. I don’t adhere to or recommend any particular ‘diet’. As I’ve mentioned before, all diets work…as long as you stay with them. Most diets are garbage designed to have you drop tons of weight quickly but make it impossible to stay with it long term. The result is huge swings in your weight, which wreaks havoc on your metabolism and overall health.
What’s a healthy lifestyle for eating?
A good goal for weight loss is 0.5-2 pounds per week. The closer you get to 2 pounds a week, the harder it is to sustain. Healthy lifestyles are about long-term successful habits. When looked at in a day’s view they are not that impressive, but when compounded over weeks, months, and years, it’s a huge accomplishment. When you see healthy lifestyles on TV or in a magazine it’s fairly certain that what they are saying is anything BUT healthy or a lifestyle you can adopt successfully long-term. That’s because true healthy habits aren’t glamorous or extreme. Often they are simple, small choices that add up over time.
So is there a way to lose weight, and keep it off, without restricting tons of foods you love?
YES!
The Eating Habit from Japan
The native people of Okinawa Japan have a lifestyle of eating that is very impressive. I came across this eating habit from reading The Blue Zone by Dan Buettner. According to the Cleveland clinic, the results of this practice have yielded the lowest rates of illness from heart disease, cancer, and stroke. These are the 3 biggest killers and health problems in the US. These people also have some of the longest life expectancies in the world.
The locals call it, ‘hara hachi bu’. It means eat until you are 80% full. This is sound advice for us since our food culture is one that promotes gluttony. This practice also works well because it takes the stomach roughly 15-20 minutes to signal to the brain that it is completely full. However, if we keep shoveling in the food at a break-neck speed we will end up overeating every, single, time. Again an extra 200-400 calories every meal, over every week add up. There are 3500 calories in a pound. Assuming you overeat just 200 calories each meal (3 meals a day) you will gain over 1 pound each week, that’s over 52 pounds each year! However, if you stop when you are 80% full, chances are in about 20 minutes your stomach will actually say you’re full.
How do you practice Hara Hachi Bu?
The natives recite this phrase every time before they start to eat. It’s a simple way to be mindful of what you are eating. Many people get into trouble with their diet/weight loss goals due to distracted eating (where you eat while doing something else like while watching a movie).
You don’t have to eat anything in particular or restrict anything. If you want to eat nothing but soy and veggies, great. If you don’t do gluten, you do you. There are tons of ways to gain and lose weight. This is a simple practice of mindfulness and awareness.
Here are the top 3 ways to this eating lifestyle
- Say out loud or to yourself ‘Hara hachi bu’ before each time you eat.
- Eat slower to enjoy your food more and give your stomach a chance to evaluate your fullness.
- Eat with the purpose to stop hunger not to become stuffed.
Give it a try. It’s fairly easy to do.