The best enemy of January (after returning to work) is, for many, the scale. When the time comes to weigh yourself, you take less responsibility for the raclettes and the numerous boxes of praline chocolates that you have emptied. And you might as well stop right away: a series of fasts or drastic diets are in no way a solution. Indeed, the nutrition and positive psychology coach, Isabelle Veverkaalso author of the book 8-week program to stop eating my emotions! explains to us that you will certainly lose weight quickly thanks to these methods, but only to gain it back even faster. In order to avoid being counterproductive, it offers better alternatives in order to achieve its objectives in a healthier, and above all sustainable, way.
Adopt a low glycemic index diet
When you begin a weight loss process, the best option is to “profoundly change your diet and lifestyle to avoid the yo-yo effect”, insists Isabelle Veverka. By this, the coach means “giving yourself time to establish new good habits” over time and not suddenly. Those pounds didn’t come in a few days, so there’s no point stressing your body to lose them in a week.
The coach’s method is the low glycemic index diet. Beyond rebalancing your diet, this technique involves monitoring your blood sugar peak. Either eat less sweets and reduce the amount of carbohydrates consumed. In this case, sweets, ice cream, cakes, white sugar and also starchy foods. Because a high blood sugar level due to a spike in blood sugar will generally be stored as fat.
Attention ! The idea is not to stop eating certain foods, but rather to limit their consumption in order to avoid blood sugar spikes leading to hypoglycemia, which in turn leads to regular cravings. In her method, the author suggests making changes at your own pace. By swapping, for example, cow’s milk, which raises insulin levels (and will have the same effect as sugar), for dairy products made from goat’s or sheep’s milk.
Be patient and kind to yourself
The coach also recommends supporting your dietary change with two other tools. “The positive notebook”, which consists of writing down daily (or as regularly as possible) the dietary changes made, the dishes eaten and the physical activity, by circling the positive in green. “This allows you not to feel guilty about possible breakdowns,” says the positive psychology coach. She also invites you to note in this same notebook, the “three positive points of your day”, to avoid focusing solely on your weight to lose, “this body that you don’t like today”. “Even if you didn’t do sports, maybe you walked a little more, took the stairs instead of the elevator,” encourages Isabelle Veverka.
To this end, it also invites you to project yourself and stay focused on your objectives thanks to a “vision board”, better known by the English term “vision board”. This must bring together four points: slimming project, well-being, social relationships and development and professional and personal projects. “Obviously, these four pillars were not chosen by chance”, underlines Isabelle Veverka, “they will activate positive psychology”. A way to transform frustration and guilt into patience and self-kindness, so as not to abandon your weight loss process because of deviations or a few shortcomings. And also to accept your body with its curves and its particularities.