If you’ve been carrying around too many pounds for too long, deciding to finally lose them is a huge step toward overall health and wellness. But it’s also a huge commitment to changing the way you think about food for the rest of your life.
If you’re like most people, the thought of getting started on that path just as the holidays hit sounds like torture and a recipe for failure. But here at Roswell Pain and Weight Loss Specialists, Dr. Damon Christian Kimes and our team believe it’s better to get on board with your new lifestyle before, not after, the season. Here’s why.
Losing weight is one of the top New Year’s Resolutions, primarily because of all the overeating and weight gain that takes place in November and December. But if you get started on your new eating and exercise habits before the holidays, you can begin the new year with a head start and no need for a resolution at all — or you can come up with a new one!
You’re never faced with as many high-calorie, high-fat foods as you are during the holidays. If you start reducing the amount of sweets and carbs you consume at Thanksgiving and continue through December, then keeping it up as things return to normal will be a piece of cake — or carrot.
Sometimes weight loss is less about loss and more about not gaining more. This just means that slowing down your normal pattern of gaining counts as progress.
For example, if you typically gain two pounds in November, six pounds in December, and one pound in January, that’s an average of three pounds a month. But if you start your diet before the holidays come around, and only gain one pound in November, two in December, and none in January, you’ll slash your average monthly gain by 67%!
Whether you start your healthy habits now or later, the holidays are going to come into play eventually, because attaining and maintaining your healthy weight is a lifetime commitment. So why not start now? If you decide to binge once last time, you’re just setting yourself up for feelings of sacrifice and deprivation come January, and you’ll start your journey even heavier than you are now.
Real-life weight loss means rethinking how you cook and bake. To keep your food and your body light, you need to swap out high-calorie, high-fat ingredients for healthy alternatives, and there’s no better time than the holidays to try out some new techniques in the kitchen.
No one has to tell you that weight loss is hard. You’ve likely tried every diet and program out there. But the reason they don’t work is because they are too generic, one-size-fits-all, too extreme, and unrealistic.
Effective weight loss happens when you understand your body’s unique metabolism and all the variables that regulate your ability to lose weight. That’s where Dr. Kimes comes in. He gets to know everything about you that affects your health and wellness, including your relationship to food, your habits and lifestyle, and your physical condition and age, and then customizes a weight-loss plan specifically for you.
He may recommend lipotropic or vitamin B12 injections to boost your efforts or hormone replacement therapy to correct imbalanced hormones that may be thwarting your weight-loss efforts. Of course, he also advises you about nutrition and exercise that are essential to your goals. And we’re all here when you need support or strategies for navigating celebratory feasts and office break rooms full of goodies.
If you’ve decided to lose weight, there’s no time like the present. Contact us at our Roswell, Georgia, office or book an appointment online today to get a jumpstart on the new you.
