7 Proven Ways to Lose Weight for Busy Career Women
#SugarBalancedLiving
As a busy, career focused women, finding the time for self care and watching your diet can be a lot to handle. With work, school, and family, there are just not enough hours in the day. That's why, in this post I'm sharing my 7 proven ways to lose weight when you're crushed for time (without quitting your fave foods or hitting the gym for hours a day)!
Finding the time to prioritize yourself in this modern world can be challenging, especially when you’re constantly on a busy schedule. As a working professional, you have lots of responsibility, plenty of stress, many decisions to make every day, and then of course even when the workdays end you're swamped taking care of things at home, all while trying to manage healthy relationships.
This makes it super easy to lose track of your own self-care and following a healthy eating routine.
Nonetheless, neglecting to take care of yourself will in the long run only do more damage than good – not only will it lead to stress and burnout at work and negatively impact other areas of your life, but you're also placing your body at risk.
Not taking care of your nutrition and living an unhealthy lifestyle and eating excessive amounts of processed and high sugar foods can cause a variety of health problems and common scary diseases including obesity in children and adults, type-2 diabetes, and even cancer.
Prioritizing your self-care and wellness can be even more of a struggle when your goal is to lose weight.
It’s challenging to keep up with complicated diets and spending enough time at the gym when your schedule is hectic. How do you balance your health goals with work, family, and friends?
You want to feel confident every hour of the day. Whether you’re giving a presentation, running errands, or finally getting time to meet up for drinks with your friends at happy hour, you want to look gorgeous, feel energized, and enjoy yourself to the fullest.
Losing weight isn't just about feeling great in anything you wear — it’s also about preventing health issues and performing at your best. You want to have the energy to be a top performer at work, you want to feel confident in your dress, you want to feel gorgeous when you go for drinks, and want to feel vibrant enough to enjoy spending time with your family.
It seems so simple – everyone tells us to just eat less and exercise more. But as too many of us know, it ain't that easy. We get busy, we're tired, so it just seems easier to shove bad things in our mouths to save time and get that quick energy boost, and well let's face it because a lot of bad things taste good.
When you have a hectic schedule full of appointments, family obligations, and errands, hitting your weight-loss goals can feel straight-up impossible.
There is good news though... you don’t need to quit your job and ditch all responsibilities just to find the time to finally lose weight. Today, I'm going to share my 7 proven ways to lose weight for busy career women, just like you!
I understand what you're going through...
I know how you feel. I've always been a young professional working in marketing and launching new start-ups. Having the time and energy to work, study, and balance time with family and friends while trying to get rid of my extra weight has been a struggle.
The physical toll of my poor diet, bad routines, and stress caused by my terrible habits and work, started to manifest in my body - weight gain and difficulty losing weight, acne, fatigue, sleep disorder, and my periods became irregular.
Not only did I have to face the physical effects, but also the negative psychological effects manifested into difficulty concentrating, irritability, and moods swings, which all wreaked havoc on my work and study effectiveness.
I was overweight, lethargic, mentally exhausted, and struggling with an ankle injury. Life seemed impossible. I was tired of being at war with my body.
How did I finally slim down and get my health back?
I needed to make a change to take a step back to fuel my mind, body, and soul. I went on a self-care pilgrimage and discovered that achieving health wasn't about fad diets and pressuring myself to work out, but instead that we need to ditch willpower and deprivation for long-term health success even when we're stressed and busy. You don’t need to starve yourself or exercise for hours to lose weight.
You don't have to do anything radical to lose weight. We all can reap huge health benefits by making a couple of 'crucial' small changes in our lifestyles. The small changes lead to lasting results, instead of the yo-yo dieting culture we all know too well.
So where do you start when losing weight?
Losing weight is much more than buying prepper health meals or forcing yourself into the gym for an hour a day, it is about planning, devotion, and creating new positive healthy habits.
Whether you are working long hours, studying long hours, or have to spend all your day looking after the house and the kids, there are a number of weight loss solutions that can help you get through this difficult and daunting process.
I'm not gonna tell you to spend half your day in the gym or start drinking green juices at lunch. I'm here to share with you how you start living a healthier lifestyle without ever feeling deprived or overworked - one that will help you naturally slim down and keep it off!
If you feel like you have no time to work out or watch your diet, don't give up. Here are my 7 proven smart and simple strategies to lose weight on a busy schedule:
1. Ditch "The Diet" And Focus On "The What"
What if I told you that you didn’t have to go on a strict diet to lose weight and eat 'healthy‘? It’s time to say goodbye to diets and ditch the 'dieting' mentality.
Quick fixes and traditional restrictive diets rarely yield long-lasting or satisfying results. If they were useful, we wouldn't be making the same resolution every January and year in, year out. Not only is yo-yo dieting (aka weight cycling) an unhealthy practice (because losing weight and gaining it back in a short period of time might affect your blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol levels, and in turn, increasing your risk of a heart attack or stroke), but yo-yo dieting is also affecting your wallet.
Americans invest about $33 billion each year on weight-loss products, yet nearly two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. Clearly, the diet culture isn't working for us.
The $60 billion industry has told us that dieting is the answer, but that is a ploy to get you to buy their products (ex: 'green juices' and 'low-calorie' snacks).
The good news is that this doesn't mean that healthy eating and losing weight is impossible. Let's look at diets differently - by definition, a diet is simply the foods a person typically eats.
The way you choose to eat should be a way of life. You should look at a diet like a non-diet diet. A diet is a habit, and habits are your norm; they should be sustainable and realistic for you and your lifestyle.
So, what I want you to do is focus on the 'what': the foods you choose to eat. Instead of endlessly counting calories or cutting out an entire food group, you want to have a balanced diet, without deprivation.
Setup a general food plan that'll incorporate more whole foods like fruits and vegetables, healthy whole grains, protein-rich lean meats, and less processed foods (especially refined carbs and added sugars).
This approach to your diet is not only healthier, but will also save you time and stress worrying about fitting in a certian diet category.
A basic diet example (this isn’t exact) that should be good for weight loss would be to aim to have three meals a day, each with:
1 serving of lean protein (like 30z of cooked chicken, 2 eggs or 1/2 block of tofu, etc)
0-1 serving of fiber-rich carbs (1-2 slices of sprouted grain bread, 1/4 cup of brown recipe or 1/2 cup of oatmeal, 1 cup of fruit, etc)
1-2 servings of healthy fats (like 1 tsp of olive oil, 1/4 of a whole avocado, 1/2 oz of nuts
an unlimited amount of non-starchy veggies (like leafy greens, peppers, callower, etc.)
And note, while fruit is a healthy essential, it is still high in natural sugar, so keep your servings of it to 3 servings a day.
Snacks should be fiber and protein-rich
However, be realistic - don't go crazy straight out of the starting line by cutting everything unhealthy completely. Going cold turkey isn’t the best idea if you want to sustainably cut processed foods and added sugars. But how come?
If you consume excessively high amounts of sugar and junk food regularly, then suddenly not eating any sugar will cause your body to go into shock, and you’ll experience many different symptoms connected with sugar and junk food withdrawal, like excessive cravings, which can lead to binging.
But, keep in mind that if you permit yourself a “small” amount of sugar every day, it may lead your mind to rationalize eating even more sugar, one cookie will lead to two, and so on. Tricky right? Don't worry... here’s what you should do:
By making a few modifications to your diet and setting yourself up with the right knowledge, overcoming sugar withdrawal and maintaining it can be easier than ever. Check out my post How to Stop Eating Sugar: 11 Simple Ways for some simple ways to reduce sugar from your diet without falling into the rationalization trap!
2. You Can’t Out Exercise A Poor Diet
Here is an important point for you to note. When we get motivated to start trying to achieve our weight loss goals, it's not uncommon for us to get ambitious and try to fix everything at once.
However, this can be problematic for your goals. If weight loss is your goal, focus on weight loss and changing your dietary habit, but just like with not going cold turkey, do not try to do too much too early. Don't try to increase your physical activity too much yet.
Working out increases energy expenditure which will drive up your appetite up, which can lead us to justify indulging after a workout because we feel like we earned it. Even if we think it's a healthier indulgence like an energy bar (200-300 calories), that is all it takes to match the 300-400 calories you just burned at the gym.
The calories in and calories out is not a good way of thinking. Calories aren’t the enemy, they’re here as a guidance tracker for your diet. When it comes to calories while being active does mean you burn calories, it is a lot easier and faster to consume them than it is to burn them off, so, you can't just outrun a bad diet.
Of course, being active for the health benefits is important, and you should increase your activity but at first, eat healthily for the weight benefits. Once you've got a healthy eating diet under control then start to consider workouts. Weight loss really is a marathon and not a sprint.
Skipping the gym for now will also save you time and stress that should be focused on diet goals.
3. Bring Lunch To Work
In this modern-day world we are surrounded by convenient and affordable food options that make it easier than ever to never have to cook at home: takeout, pickup, and numerous food-delivery apps make eating without cooking as easy as a tap on your phone.
However, the most seemingly convenient food and drink options are high sugar and calories-dense. If you cook at home, you know exactly how much salt, sugar, flavors, and fats are in your dish and you have the power to swap ingredients in (and out) to fit your nutritional and caloric goals.
But, I know you're running a busy life and I understand that few of us can do this all the time -- and that’s okay. Instead, set some weekly goals like bringing your lunch to work on Mondays and Fridays. Also, prioritize setting some time aside to research some takeout dishes that can be your healthy go-to's to order when you're under pressure. Your bank account will thank you, too.
4. Plan But Don't Calorie Count
Every Sunday or Saturday, block off some time like an hour or so to plan and prep as many meals that you have time to prepare for the week ahead. Meal prepping saves time, energy, and helps ensure that you stay on track with your nutrition goals.
You can also prepare meals like soup, stir-frys, salads, rice bowls, and casseroles ahead of time to store in your freezer.
Like I mentioned earlier, when you're planning out what you're gonna eat, try not to calorie count or be inflexible with your calories. Calories in and calories out are not a good way of thinking. Calories aren’t the enemy, they’re here as a guidance tracker for your diet.
Why Tracking Calories Doesn’t Always Help Weight Loss
Your calorie needs and how many calories you should eat will vary per person and depend on numerous factors like your age, height, weight, and activity levels (basically whether you're a gym bunny or daytime TV buff).
Also, while high-calorie foods are often associated with junk food, some can be essential nutrients as well. For example, I’m a strong believer in good fats and bad fats.
While the food industry intentionally went out to vilify fats to take the heat off the damage caused by their money-making sugar-based products, dietary good fats are essential to give your body energy and to support cell growth.
In actual fact - healthy fats are fantastic for you (olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, 70% or more dark chocolate), and your best, and I mean your best, friends in your journey to combating hunger and cravings.
Additionally, low-calorie doesn’t always mean healthy or good - calories aren’t everything. For example, you have a can of sweetened soda or some fruit for the same amount of calories, but one will lead to fat gain.
Look at the soda - that’s going to be 140 calories of sugar and literally nothing else (well, maybe some harmful chemicals).
Now let’s say you have one apple and one pear.
That’s 190 calories combined, but these fruits aren’t just sugar and nothing - they’re providing you with vitamins and minerals like fiber and potassium, and are packed with immune system boosting antioxidants.
All the sugar from the soda will go straight to spiking your blood sugar levels and can very well lead to weight gain, while the fiber and minerals will protect you from the fruit’s sugars and increase your body’s amount of important nutrients.
Is Calorie Counting Bad?
This doesn't mean calorie counting is all bad. If you eat more calories than you need in a day, based on your weight and activity level, you’ll gain weight. If you eat fewer calories than you need per day, you’ll lose weight. But if you under-eat like many people on the 1200 calories per day diet, for most, it may have negative effects.
Instead of thinking of calories as an exact measurement of what's good and bad, I want you to look at calories as a practical approach for guiding you to a balanced diet that’ll help you lose weight.
If your goal is to lose weight – a slight caloric deficit and good nutrition overall can lead to sustainable weight loss (assuming that you’re not already under-eating, reducing your normal intake by 300-500 calories).
If you’re semi-regularly or generally active, don’t go above and/or stay at around 1800 calories per day and if you are extremely sedentary and/or small, I recommend dropping this number.
Remember it's not just the calories, but how much of the protein, carbohydrate, and fat, and vitamins and minerals you take from the food that's important for overall well-being. Use calories as general guidance.
Furthermore, I know that when your calendar is full of office lunches, drinks with friends, dinner dates, and celebrations with friends or family you’ll inevitably find yourself in a situation where you're surrounded with mostly sweet treats, salty snacks, fatty foods, and high-calorie meals. So we need to have a plan for how we’ll deal with temptation.
An excellent strategy to stick with your nutrition plan is to not deprive yourself completely, while also being sensible about how much you indulge.
One easy trick for limiting and keeping moderation is to make sure your main plate is balanced. For your main dish, make sure to keep half of the plate full of non-starchy vegetables, a quarter for starchy vegetables or whole grains, a more flexible quarter for lean protein, and then moderately indulge around that. This will help keep you full for longer and reduce cravings.
Always eat your calories and try not to drink your calories. Water is always the best choice, but if you want something different you can instead:
Swap high sugar beverages like sodas (think; Coke or Pepsi) and fizzy drinks for unsweetened sparkling water or unsweetened flavored sparkling water
Swap fruit juice and store-bought smoothies for homemade smoothies and coconut water
Flavored coffees and iced teas for unsweetened tea and plain coffee with cream. If you only like your tea and coffee sweetened, then try to find a lower-sugar strategy like adding cinnamon or pure vanilla extract to add flavor without the fake sweetness
It is also important that you space your calorie consumption throughout the day. Going more than four or five hours without eating can slow down your metabolism, affect your hormones, and contribute to unhealthy food choices when you finally do decide to eat.
Many overweight people don't necessarily overeat, but their eating schedules are completely erratic. So, be consistent – be it three meals and a couple of small snacks or five mini-meals.
5. Get Professional Support
When I was personally working on breaking my negative eating patterns and terrible yo-yo dieting cycle, one of the biggest factors in achieving my goal of breaking my junk food addiction, finally curbing my sweet tooth, and losing weight, while I was trying to balance a crazy busy work, life, and, study schedule was: support. Yep, there it is: support.
Having emotional support throughout your weight loss journey will increase your odds of long-term success. If you feel encouraged by others, rather than discouraged on your own, you'll have an easier time staying committed to your weight-control efforts.
Support also helps keep you accountable and motivated to stay on track.
You can find support in a partner, friend, or even more effective professional support like a health and wellness coach and community.
As someone who is now a wellness coach, I can tell you if I had someone like myself, a wellness coach or even a healthy community, to keep me in check and metaphorically hold my hand when I was on my health journey, I would've achieved weight loss and vibrant health a lot sooner.
A health and wellness coach is someone who keeps you motivated, on track, gives you guidance with your eating plan, and helps you overcome mindset blocks that keep you stuck. They give you new ideas and help you move forward when your weight plateaus (which it will do at some point).
Health coaches keep you accountable and should help you a busy person create a tailored meal and fitness plan that works for YOUR life and circumstances.
Is it worth it to hire one? Consider the professional insights, support, and accountability, an investment in your health and future. A typical approach is between 3-6 months, so while being healthy is a lifelong commitment, getting help from a coach isn’t.
Even if you're not ready to get one-on-one coaching, you can always find a supportive program with a community that'll help save you time, stress, and failure, by guiding and supporting you with effective advice.
Be wary though, many nutritions and health and wellness coaches are product pushers, use depriving calorie counting methods, and don't work on long-term results and health, so, be sure to do your research.
If you want trusted accountability, support, and the right plan for losing weight in the long term and building a healthy life, then my Break My Sugar Addiction is for you.
In my program, we will help you conquer your obsession with sugar and junk food and negative eating habit without food fads, dieting, deprivation, and the need for willpower and we help you gain vibrant energy, heal your body, drop excess weight, boost your metabolism so that you can embrace a life that you love living.
6. Ditch The I'll Start Tomorrow Mindset
Do you keep telling yourself that you’ll plan to “start a new diet or health plan every Monday or you’ll get to eating healthier and staying on track tomorrow”? But tomorrow never comes, does it? There always seems to be something that causes you to push tomorrow further and further away.
Yeah, I see what you’re doing. I’ve been there, said that, more times than you can count!
No matter how much you dream, plan, or want to create a new healthier routine, or lose weight, the vicious cycle of "I'll start my diet tomorrow" is a frequent barricade that we face on our journey to reaching not only our health dreams but also goals in general.
“It’s just one burger with fries. It’s fine my diet starts tomorrow”, “The diet starts Monday.” Yet, tomorrow comes and goes and so does Monday. You make no changes. You'll never start.
If you’re in that place where all you can do is wait until tomorrow, I encourage you to think about why this is? Why can’t you start today? When we say “I’ll start tomorrow”, we are only making excuses for not making positive changes, and are sabotaging any effort that we have made.
Even if you slip up and eat something you shouldn't, don't tell yourself not to worry, you'll start again tomorrow. That just means screw it, you’ve “blown your diet”, so you might as well keep eating more of those cookies and maybe even enjoy a burger and fries after work.
Don’t use a mishap as an excuse to immediately to turn backward on your path, and start eating unhealthy things for the rest of the day. Mistakes are unavoidable. No one is perfect. What is important is that you get back on track on the same day, not tomorrow.
Every small step you take toward a healthier lifestyle matter.
7. Hydrate All Day Long
A day with a full schedule is a day often full of caffeine boosts to make it through the day without collapsing. But you shouldn't be relying on sugary coffee drinks with little nutritional value to get you through the day.
Instead, opt for water and plenty of it.
One of the simplest yet effective tips you can apply to your life for weight loss, which very few people actually follow, is to drink water.
Thirst is easily mistaken for hunger, and dehydration can also cause mismanaged hunger signals. Research suggests that drinking water before a meal can help you feel more full.
Food cravings can occur as a result of being thirsty, so replenishing the water in your body is often a quick little trick to kick your cravings, so you don’t opt for that Oreo as a snack to quench your craving. Whenever you get a craving, sip on a cup of pure water to see if that helps!
If you’re notoriously bad at hydrating, don't worry, most people are. An easy trick I do to remember to stay hydrated is to carry a reusable water bottle with me at all times.
You can also pump up the flavor of your water without adding calories or sweeteners by throwing in a few slices of lemon, lime, or cucumber, a handful of strawberries, or a few chunks of watermelon or pineapple.
Bottom Line
Achieving your goal of losing weight or getting healthy does not mean you have to sacrifice all your spare time, wreak havoc on your work schedule, or make a ton of huge, life-altering changes all at once. Sometimes it's okay to take smaller steps, and just choose the smartest choices, that you can make for where you are in your journey, throughout your day to get you moving in the right direction toward healthy success.
Hopefully, these suggestions have given you a good idea of how you can start to incorporate a few simple healthy habits that you can work seamlessly into your busy schedule and get great weight loss results — so you can keep hustling and still hit your health goals.
No longer need to sacrifice your wellness, self-care, and weight-loss goals for work, family, friends, and building a successful career.
I know that the hardest step here might be starting the process of cutting back on the refined carbs and sugar - especially with sugary or carby pasta cravings - but once you’ve started decreasing it for a few weeks, you will notice the decreased cravings, and will be really surprised at just how much better you feel.
I’m evidence of this!
However, I know that sometimes it’s harder for some rather than others when it comes to sugar and junk food cravings, especially when they cause you to endless crave them.
So, if your weight has crept up on you and/or you’re tired of feeling STUCK in trying to conquer negative food habits without food fads, obsessive dieting, deprivation, or the need for willpower, I have some extra support for you, that’ll help you in cutting down on processed foods and junk foods addictive pull!
And since I’m totally here to help you the best I can… for even more effective and actionable support, I’ve put together some seriously useful and easy hacks on cutting back sugar and junk foods for good.