Confession: Sometimes I Need to Do a Reset to Jump Start My Weight Loss and Get Back on Track
I received this email from a reader a while back...
"Hi Martha, thank you so much for all the wonderful recipes it really helped. Lately I have been struggling to get back on track. I don't seem to be doing anything differently but I am just stuck. But with these new recipes every day I am trying to figure out how to get back on track." ~C. B.
Can you relate? I certainly can. Even after all these years.
I think we all feel stuck and struggle getting back on track sometimes. It's a natural part of life's journey. The key is to refuse to give up.
One thing I like to do after a period of excessiveness is to shake up my routines and hit the "reset" button for a few days until I'm feeling more in control. So today I'm sharing 3 of my favorite ways to jump start my weight loss and get back on track:
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- Helpful Ways to Stay on Track in Stressful Times
3 Ways to Jump Start Your Weight Loss
Photo Credit: Daniel Irwin on Unsplash
Weight Loss Jump Start #1: Cereal
A favorite strategy that works beautifully for me is to opt for cereal for dinner and/or lunch for a few days. I choose a low sugar/high fiber cereal topped with fruit and skim milk or unsweetened almond milk.
Some of my favorite healthy low WW SmartPoints cereals include:
*Oatmeal (plain, unsweetened)
*Special K (original)
*Shredded Wheat (plain)
*Fiber One (original)
*Cheerios (original or multigrain)
The reason I believe this works well for me? Eating cereal totally removes my desire to have a glass of wine, which can easily morph into 2 or 3 if I'm not careful. And it also takes away the desire for dessert. The cereal and fruit is sweet enough.
Tuscan Chicken Bowtie Soup
Weight Loss Jump Start #2: Soup
Opting for soup for lunch and or dinner can also work well. While homemade soup is great, there are lots of light soups to be found at the supermarket that will work, including, Amy's Organic (Chunky Tomato Bisque), Progresso Light, Campbell's Healthy Request & Well Yes! and Pacific Foods.
Soup has been a magic weight loss ingredient for me through the years and the research agrees. Many studies confirm that consuming soup improves satiety (the feeling of fullness) so that we eat less and take in fewer calories which is great for weight loss.
Once you discover all the benefits of soup for health and weight loss, you too will become a soup nut. My Skinny Soups eCookBook brimming with easy, healthy, delicious recipes for the slow cooker and stovetop will help!
Weight Loss Jump Start #3: Portion Controlled Frozen Meals Like Smart Ones or Lean Cuisine
Packaged frozen foods, such as Weight Watchers Smart Ones, can help you control your calorie intake and make food preparation easy. Including frozen diet meals like Smart Ones in your diet can help you to stay within your calorie guidelines with smart food choices and portion control.
You can use Smart Ones or Lean Cuisines as the mainstay of your diet, supplementing with fresh fruits, vegetables and low fat or fat free dairy products for adequate calories and nutrition or just have a Smart Ones entree occasionally when there's not time to cook or use them for quick and easy lunches or dinners.
By making them the mainstay of my meal planning for a couple of weeks, I find that I'm able to jumpstart my weight loss and get back in control.
Do you have a favorite strategy for jump starting your weight loss and/or getting back on track after a period of overindulgence? Let us know in the comments below!
Martha is the founder and main content writer for Simple-Nourished-Living.
A longtime lifetime WW at goal, she is committed to balancing her love of food and desire to stay slim while savoring life and helping others do the same.
She is the author of the Smart Start 28-Day Weight Loss Challenge.
A huge fan of the slow cooker and confessed cookbook addict, when she's not experimenting in the kitchen, you're likely to find Martha on her yoga mat.
This post contains affiliate links to products I like. When you buy something through one of my Amazon links or other (affiliate links), I receive a small commission that helps support this site. Thank you for your purchase!
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Jackie
Hi Martha, I’m so glad to belong to your group. The recipes are wonderful. I’m eating healthier and I feel better. I’ve always had a battle with my weight. I’m not the greatest cook and revert to eating the same things over and over. with your recipes I have quite a variety to choose from Its just the greatest. I’ve lost 5# I gained over Christmas and I have 10# to go to be my normal BMI. Thank you for all you do.
Martha McKinnon
Thanks, Jackie! I really appreciate your thoughtful comment. Congrats on your weight loss. Please know I am here behind my computer cheering for you! ~Martha
Debra Melvin
Thank you for all your hard work and helping me to try to get back on track. I am going to try this buying some cereal and soups tomorrow.
Debby
Soup is my go to as well, but I also like plain fat free greek yogurt and fat free cottage cheese together with either fruit or cherry tomatoes.
Melissa K
I too use soup as a go to, as well as Lean cuisine meals for healthier options for some of my favorite foods. Specifically my comfort foods, pizza, mashed potatoes, pasta, and Mexican food. I make sure those are always stocked in my freezer.
Another thing I have tried is to have sugar free candies for my sugar fixes on hand at all times, several different varieties so I don't feel limited. There are several sugar free hard candies that are only 10 calories each.
I literally wrote down all the foods that I love and made a conscience effort to find low calorie/low carb options for everything. I also love cheese, so I make sure to always have a couple varieties of low fat/calorie options for those as well. When I have variety I dont feel so much like I am on a diet.
Im not a huge chip person but always find myself craving them when I start back on my journey. I always make sure to have healthy alternatives to the snap/crunch that I am craving, so I have been experimenting with air popped popcorn and all the different kinds of powdered flavorings.
Also making light breakfast casserole's has really helped me be more organized with my breakfast calories.
I never thought of having cereal for dinner or lunch. Thats a great idea.
Donna Wolf
I love frozen meals. I use Healthy Choice. If you scan the barcode, many are just 1 or 2 points and they are very good. I had chicken and broccoli Alfredo the other day for one point.
Martha McKinnon
Great advice, Donna! Healthy frozen meals can be a great way to jumpstart your weight loss since they are perfectly portion and calorie controlled! Thanks. ~Martha
Frances
Very helpful post on how to quickly & easily stay on track.
I always try to carefully meal plan & stay on a healthy low point track but it never fails when life happens & I am distracted off course or suddenly dont have time to prep & cook a healthy meal…even though I have all the ingredients. Its like all my well intentioned plans go out the window & I make poor decisions to eat non healthy comfort foods or take out foods.
But this great post gives me another trick to put up my sleeve on how to survive these times & stay on track. I always have cereal, frozen healthy meals & soup on hand.
Thank you!