I have a client who has been, do date, my most successful client in reaching his weight loss goals.  He’s made goals, decided the things he wanted to work on and followed the guidance I’ve provided.  What sets him apart from my other clients? His goal setting and tracking.  Every Saturday morning he decides on his goals for the upcoming week and evaluates how he did reaching the goals he set for the current week.  This keeps him focused on where he is going.

I’m a fan of setting goals and putting them in writing.  If it is in writing, then it is real.  However, recently I’ve come upon another way to help you achieve your goals, and it came from an unlikely place – Jerry Seinfeld.  When Jerry Seinfeld was starting out, he had the goal of writing jokes every day.  He kept himself on track and motivated by building a chain – and not breaking the chain.  Here’s how it works. . .

Set a goal for yourself and decide what you have to do to make that goal a reality.  Then, get a calendar that has all the months on a single page and a big marker of your favorite color.  Each day you do the activity that moves you towards your goal, mark a big “X” on that day.  Each day you move towards your goal, you get an “X,” and you build a chain of Xs.  Keep the chain going.  If you miss a day, no X and the chain is broken.

Here’s an example: I’m in school working towards a PhD in Kinesiology.  I have to get a Candidacy paper written.  My goal is to work on a part of that paper each day.  I recently started using a product called toodledo to manage my task list and goals – and link the two.  Every day I do a task working towards getting my Candidacy paper done, I get a link in my chain.  Toodledo actually builds a chain on my goal page.  Not breaking that chain has become an incredibly powerful motivator for me – and even better every day I get closer to reaching my goal.

Interested?  Give it a try for yourself.  You could track it in Outlook with an all day task marked a certain color.  Or, come up with a way to make it work for you.  Want to learn more?  Here’s a description of the discussion with Jerry Seinfeld.

And, remember – Don’t Break The Chain to achieve your goals!

Apples are one of my favorite foods.  I like apples plain, with peanut butter or chocolate sauce.  The other day, I was cutting up an apple into slices to have with a bit of peanut butter.  I ate one of the slices and thought, “WOW! That is a great apple!  Its a shame to cover it up with peanut butter!”  I still had some peanut butter with it, but less than usual so I could enjoy how the sweet, tart and salty flavors came together.  However, this is not always the case.  Sometimes, I think I use the apple as a “utensil” to get the peanut butter, rather than just having peanut butter on its own – when it is the peanut butter I want conscious of that desire or not.

I believe many of us do this, and that it is unconscious.  This concept goes back to actually tasting your food.  Many of our foods have add-ons that we really, really like.  For example, when you have that baked potato with butter, sour cream, cheese, chives, and bacon-like bits . . . do you taste the potato or all the add-ons?  Are you using the potato just to get the butter, sour cream, cheese, chives, and bacon-like bits?  What about french fries?  Do you really like the way the fries taste. . . or do you like the sweetness of the catsup?  Chips and dip, and salad and dressing are other combinations to consider.  Ask yourself, would I eat the butter, sour cream or catsup if I used a spoon instead of a potato?  If not, then perhaps using the potato as a utensil is not the best choice.  Is there something else you can have?

This week, start looking at the your foods and think about are you eating the food for the add-ons, or for the food (are you ordering that salad so you can have the Caesar dressing or because you like the lettuce?).  If you are not sure, cut down the amount of add-ons you are using and see if you notice a difference.  Can you taste the main food?  Do you like the way it tastes?  Do you like the interaction of all the flavors from both the main food and the condiments?  If you find you are only eating a food for the add-ons (for example, you discover you really don’t like those chips, but you really like that sour cream dip), then you can decide to find a healthier food-utensil (perhaps carrots or celery rather than chips), or not eat the food and and add-ons at all.

I have two more of those yummy apples left.  I think I’ll have the next plain. . . .

I think most people hope for a “magic” diet that will help them lose then maintain their weight.  We keep hoping for it to come along.  I know I stop by all the new diet books each time I’m in the bookstore to see what’s out there, and if there is something that might just make losing weight easy and last long-term.  However, I haven’t found it . . . yet.

A study was published last week and discussed in an article in the Wall Street Journal basically saying that counting calories works – regardless of the type of diet followed – low carb, low fat or high protein.  The key – reducing calories.  Participants reduced their calorie level by about 750 calories per day which would result in a one and a half pound loss per week (a rate considered safe and sustainable).  Participants were also supposed to exercise 90 minutes per week.  After two years, there was an average weight loss of nine pounds.

One of the participants interviewed in the Wall Street Journal article said that he learned he “just didn’t need all that food.”  It goes back to many of the things covered in these newsletters – portion size, plate size, paying attention to hunger signals, and the fact that our bodies can not count calories.

The national weight control registry, a registry of people who have lost 30 pounds or more and kept it off for more than a year, had demonstrated time and again that logging your food can help with weight loss and weight maintenance.  There are a lot of ways to log your food – from low tech to high tech.  For example, one of my clients keeps his food log on an index card.  Others use high tech trackers including Daily Plate or Fit Day.  There are even programs for your smartphone, Blackberry and iPhone (for example, there is an iPhone app that syncs with Daily Plate).  These can also calculate an estimate of the number of calories you need a day to maintain or lose weight.

Although the low tech solutions are a good, when starting out I would recommend using one of the tech tools so you can see the calories, carbohydrates, protein and fat that you are eating.

Although counting calories may not work for everyone (for example if someone has thyroid problems), this study provides additional proof that calories do count in the weight loss/weight maintenance game.  So, if you want to lose or maintain your weight look at the number of calories you are eating.  It is a good starting point in your journey.