How to Sustain and Enjoy Your Weight Loss Journey
We are delighted to present this enlightening op-ed by Cass Lam, a NASM and CrossFit-certified fitness & nutrition coach working with the Shangri-La Group in Hong Kong. Cass has studied Lifestyle Medicine at Harvard Medical School and serves as a Sweaty Betty Ambassador. In her engaging article "How to Sustain and Enjoy Your Weight Loss Journey," she explores the benefits of plant-based, flexitarian, and pescatarian diets, emphasizing the importance of whole foods, mindful eating, and savoring meals for optimal satiety. Cass also discusses the role of exercise, quality sleep, and lifestyle changes in maintaining a balanced approach to weight management. Read on for Cass' expert advice on making your weight loss journey more enjoyable and successful.
Do you go to the gym five times a week and wonder why your waist doesn't shrink? In your quest to lose weight, you tried low-carb and low-fat diets, but it turned out you were sabotaging your health by taking shortcuts with highly processed foods. This leads to not only an unsustainable diet but also an increase in diabetes and obesity risk, as well as fatigue.
When I am asked, "What diet do you follow?" I generally follow a whole food, plant-predominant pattern with moderate seafood, little poultry, and healthy fats, caffeine, and alcohol intake. This is the Mediterranean diet, which I practice and recommend if you want to make your weight loss journey more sustainable and enjoyable. Several studies by Harvard Medical School found the Mediterranean diet was the best diet for maintaining weight control and lowering the risk of heart disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cancer.
Mediterranean Eating Pattern
Unlike other diets, the Mediterranean diet doesn't tell you what not to eat. Instead, it promotes carbs such as whole grains, vegetables, fruits, clean protein, a good amount of healthy fat, as well as spices in food preparation. Calories are not all created equal! In my case, by limiting processed food, sugar, refined flour, and reducing trans fats, I avoid drinking juice or soda and only eat fruits, which contain fewer calories and more nutrients. To accommodate individual lifestyles, plant-based, flexitarian, or pescatarian diets are the modern versions of the Mediterranean diet. All of these diets follow similar principles.
Plant-Based:
Choosing a plant-based diet means eating a rainbow of colors with non-starchy carbohydrates like purple cabbage, yellow bell peppers, green salad, and radishes. To serve as a side dish, you can go for a palm-sized serving of fiber-rich whole-wheat bread, quinoa, bulgur, or brown rice. Adding tofu, chickpeas, seaweed, nuts, and seeds, which contain calcium, potassium, and magnesium, will provide clean protein.
Cass Lam Plant Based Meals
Flexitarian and Pescatarian:
It is recommended that Flexitarians and Pescatarians consume fresh fish, seafood, and poultry a couple of times per week as a source of super protein. Lean pork and slow-cooked chicken are also excellent choices. If you live in Asia, especially in Hong Kong where you have the luxury of easy access to seasonal vegetables, exotic seafood, and esoteric ingredients, you can invent new recipes with native sea cucumbers, Chinese Shiitake, lotus, Mung bean sprouts, and Sichuan peppercorns, which contain more plant protein than most greens, and are also rich in vitamin C and iron.
Last but not least, you should also include avocados and nuts in a thumb-sized amount in your meals because they help lower inflammation, which is the root cause of chronic conditions. Fruits are also essential to the diet because they contain fiber and water which help to distend the stomach. Don't forget to drink a lot of water to keep you hydrated all the time. Having a cup of coffee and a glass of wine daily with friends keeps us social and our meals lubricated.
Taking Time to Savor Your Meal
Diets often have negative connotations, but in Greek, "Diaita" means a way of living. It involves one's lifestyle, culture, and sustainability. A Mediterranean diet emphasizes not only fresh and nutritious whole food but also mindful eating and satiety to nourish the soul. It is important to savor your meals, not just shovel them into your mouth, regardless of what you eat. In Hong Kong, however, we eat lunch under pressure most of the time. We tend to finish our meals within 15-20 minutes without paying attention to or appreciating the food we are eating. The result of eating too fast can be bloating and overeating, which causes weight gain.
Satiety
Stomach distension is a signal for satiety or fullness, according to Dr. Beth Frates, the President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, who reminds us of the importance of mindfulness and satiety while eating. The signal of satiety takes 20 minutes to travel from your stomach to your brain to make you feel full and satisfied. Using your senses to enjoy food is, therefore, essential to savoring the eating process. Instead of staring at your phone or eating while standing, think about where your food comes from. By doing so, you'll become more aware of how much labor went into the production of the food. Another way to recognize fullness and improve digestion is to share food with family and friends. Cultures and families are inextricably linked to food. You can start your weight-loss journey by cooking together or developing a habit of cooking at home (not microwaved food) with a better weight-loss intention.
Time to hit the reset button!
Weight loss isn't an overnight process. If you are a beginner and lack motivation, change your lifestyle in baby steps by following the Mediterranean diet and avoiding processed foods. Exercise daily, mindful eating, and quality sleep all play an important role in a balanced diet. It is important to remember that no diet will work if you cannot maintain it.