The worst ways to lose weight during COVID-19

Cliff Mehrtens 0:07
trying to lose weight is a challenge even more so during the covid 19 pandemic. Welcome to Novant Health healthy headlines. I'm Cliff Martens gyms are closed but they have limited capacity schedules a juggle does most of us work from home and do our schooling from home with the lure of the nearby kitchen can be powerful. But shedding pounds remains high on many people's plan to improve their health. As we begin a new year, Amanda Smith, a Novant Health registered dietician talks more about some common weight loss mistakes, and some better alternatives we can all learn from Thank you for listening.

Amanda Smith 0:52
I'm more people staying at home, they're not commuting, so they have more time on their hands. So I would say

Cliff Mehrtens 0:46
What part of the pandemic and staying at home and all that stuff can help me lose weight.

Amanda Smith 1:01
I think the inclination has been for most people to use that to sleep in or procrastinate or scroll through more social media, but using that commute time for your exercise, whether it's going out for a walk, or you know if you have a treadmill or an elliptical hem to hop on. So definitely utilizing that commuting time. I think a lot of people have also slowed down during this time where there's not as many activities there's not as many social gathering. So being home more can allow us have more time to prepare meals at home. So cooking more at home, making sure that you're planning your meal. But definitely, you know, reducing eating out not as much fast food to with more time, in theory we should have more time for for planning those meals, preparing those and having that time for exercise.

Cliff Mehrtens 2:06
The other side of the coin is how is it bad for people,

Unknown Speaker 2:10
they're here,

Cliff Mehrtens 2:11
they're stuck at home? How does that work against you trying to lose weight?

Amanda Smith 2:15
Yeah, so a lot of people being stuck at home we we have that constant access to food. So if you're you can, you know you might be stepped away from your kitchen from your pantry. So I think again, it kind of goes back to planning. So if you're if you're planning to have, if you know you get hungry at 10 o'clock, what's the plan for that and having a plan, just like if you were going into an office, I'm keeping what I would call trigger or red light food out of your house. So if you know, there's cookies in the pantry, and that they call your name, and that you're going to go and eat 10 cookies at 10 o'clock, then it's best just to keep this food out of the house.

Cliff Mehrtens 2:58
I'm laughing because I have that battle at the grocery aisle. If I stay off that aisle, they can't get into my house, they get into my house, I'm gonna find them and I'm gonna lie to myself, I'm gonna eat them.

Amanda Smith 3:08
Right. And I think that's what you know, I tell my patients all the time, you have to be honest with yourself, if you know, you might bargain with yourself and say, Oh, I can just eat too and I'll be okay. But if you know deep down in your mind that you're going to eat 10 or 15 or you're going to eat the whole bag, then it's best just to leave them in the store. But on a on a side note to that is embracing grocery pickup. I'm number one, you don't have to go in with the crowds. But number two, um, they don't impulse shop for you, they say shop and they give you what's on your list and said there's no going down the aisle and boom, that looks good. Let me throw that into my basket. So, um, I have definitely I started using grocery pickup pre pandemic, just as a time saver. Um, but it's definitely something that that I've continued to embrace because it's such a time saver, but it does help you and it helps with budgeting because you can see how much money you're spending.

Cliff Mehrtens 4:12
What about and this does this isn't obviously COVID related. This is any year moderation. You know, dieting people dieting doesn't have to be punishment. It's more like a lifestyle change and people look at certain foods and think I can I saw this during Thanksgiving. I cannot have any dessert. I cannot have any you know, anything sweet, anything salty, but talk about moderation and how that still remains the keynote centerpiece of any sort of lifestyle change.

Amanda Smith 4:42
Sure. So like what I try to educate my patients on is healthy balance. And so, you know, we kind of follow this idea of an 8020 rule 80% of the time we're eating you know our whole grains, our lean proteins, our fruits and vegetables but 20% At the time, like, it's your birthday or Christmas or Thanksgiving, and there's that special dessert that you look forward to all year long. That's not the time to deprive yourself of that. Still, moderation as far as the portion size goes, not overeating is a big one that I really try to pound into people's heads is you know, when you're full, you're full, don't ever eat, you'll be hungry again, in three or four hours, you can always go back and get seconds or get what you weren't able to get the first time around, but over eating, then that makes us feel miserable for many hours. Um, but yeah, I mean, I'm a big believer in healthy balance and moderation and, and and not depriving yourself, I feel like when we deprive ourselves, that's when we really fall off the wagon hard at some point. And the same thing with exercise, you know, I encourage everyone to find an exercise that they enjoy. And don't use exercise as punishment. Because if you ate a slice of pizza today, exercise because you know, all of the other health benefits and it makes you feel good, and it's something you enjoy. It shouldn't be used as a punishment for what you've eaten that day.

Cliff Mehrtens 6:14
A lot of people do that, I'm sure. Talk about eating and stress levels. Obviously, this is a stressful time for a lot of people in the world. And a lot of people lean on food, some people do alcohol, some people do Netflix, whatever. But some people turn toward food and that can be reckless, and that can be harmful.

Amanda Smith 6:29
Absolutely. And so I think, you know, there are many people that rely on food for stress management. So I think having a plan ahead of time for you know, thinking about what are the tools in your toolbox for stress management, I'll tell my patients to have like a comfort kit and or, you know, some sort of a stress management toolkit and what goes in it is up to you, whether it's a devotional that you read some meditation, a lot of people it comes down to distraction, distracting your mind, because really all that stress is you know, our minds start going crazy. And then you know, we find ourselves nibbling on something. So a lot of people will use things like word word search or crossword puzzles, but having that already put together and somewhere that's accessible. So when you're feeling stressed, and can stop and acknowledge that you can turn to those better tools for stress management, rather than eating. And I think it comes back to you keeping those kind of trigger foods out of out of the house. Because most people I find, when they're stressed, they're usually very specific, they're looking for crunchy or salty or sweet. And so if we can keep those kind of trigger foods out of the house, and then during stressful times, just making sure that you are taking time for that self care and the healthy eating that taking the time to meal plan, drinking your water and and you know, just really setting aside that time for self care.

Cliff Mehrtens 8:11
Talk about the importance of just sticking with the journey. And if you only lose a pound a...