The Intentional Weight Management Approach The Intentional Weight Management Approach is based upon determining what is personally appropriate for oneself regarding food by becoming internally directed.
There are two major facets to the process,
The physical and the philosophical.
Let's start with the physical.
To do this,
Determine an overall eating pattern for meals and snacks.
To do this,
Review in detail an entire typical day.
Notice when you are currently eating,
Keep track of your activity levels throughout the day,
And become aware of hunger levels.
Eat three times per day,
Spacing meals every four to six hours.
Then decide if mid-morning and or mid-afternoon snacks are appropriate.
If so,
Place it,
Or them,
Midway between meals.
Step 2.
Determine an overall water drinking pattern.
Use your review of a typical day to determine what you are currently doing regarding drinking water.
Drink water throughout the day,
Working up to 64 ounces each day.
Remember to add one extra glass for each 25 pounds you want to lose.
Notice what patterns feel appropriate,
And establish one of them as the one you want to follow.
Step 3.
Enter hunger levels to determine maintenance eating pattern.
Keep your eating pattern constant.
Then consume a quantity of food at each meal or snack that will keep you full until approximately 30 minutes before the next meal or 15 minutes before a snack.
Step 4.
Refine the maintenance eating pattern and work toward a consistent water drinking pattern.
Use the information you gathered regarding quantity needed in order to refine your eating pattern.
Practice this quantitative aspect of weight management until you are comfortable with it.
Keep water drinking a priority and practice becoming consistent.
Step 5 is using your developed philosophy to determine your weight loss eating pattern and to assure that this eating pattern will meet your food needs.
Step 6 is monitoring this eating pattern.
Consume a quantity of food at each meal that will keep you full until approximately 45 minutes before the next meal or 30 minutes before a snack.
Step 7 is refining your weight loss eating pattern and keeping water drinking a priority.
Use the information you gathered regarding quantity in order to refine your weight loss eating pattern.
Practice this quantitative aspect of weight management until you are comfortable with it and keep water drinking a priority.
Step 8.
Practice following each eating pattern,
Maintenance and loss,
As needed and make water drinking a habit.
Use your ability to either maintain or lose weight in order to achieve your goal.
Feel free to move between these two patterns to accommodate your needs.
Make drinking an adequate amount of water each day a habit and you will continue it for the rest of your life.
Step 1 of the philosophical aspect of the intentional weight management approach is to determine what role you want food to play in your life.
Decide what you expect from food.
For example,
Do you want to just eat your three meals per day and use food primarily as fuel?
Or are you a person who loves to eat,
Who needs to interact with food quite often,
And who perhaps enjoys shopping for food,
Cooking and creatively presenting the food?
These are examples of extremes.
You probably belong somewhere between the two.
Step 2.
Determine in which facets of your life your relationship with food will play an important part.
For example,
Decide whether food decisions will express political or spiritual beliefs.
Or if your food decisions will be based upon health being a priority or your image being important.
Choose the facets that are important to you from a food perspective.
Step 3.
Determine what you expect food to do for you and why you want food to fill these needs.
Decide if food is fuel,
Sensory enjoyment,
The glue that binds friendships,
A hobby,
Etc.
What need or needs do you want food to fill and why?
Step 4.
Determine which foods are very important to you and must be a part of your life.
Decide which foods you feel must be included,
At least on occasion,
In your eating pattern.
Step 5.
Determine how often you need to have how much of what kind of each important food for it to meet your needs and fill the role you expect it to in your life.
Take each food on your list and decide how it will fit into your eating pattern.
Step 6.
Determine which foods are personally inappropriate for you and will therefore be excluded from your life.
Decide which foods,
For any reason,
Do not fit into your life and make a list of them.
Step 7.
Determine why each inappropriate food doesn't fill the role in your life.
Take each food on your list and explain why you feel it is personally inappropriate.
Step 8.
Determine what,
When,
How,
And why you want each food in your life to fit into your eating pattern.
Take all the specific categories of food you can think of and determine how each will fit into your eating pattern.
By working through both aspects of the process,
You will have a clear idea of what your needs are and how to meet them most efficiently and effectively.
Without this information,
You will be wandering about,
Never having acquired the knowledge required to succeed.
Dieting doesn't work because it is only a quick fix.
Diets are usually standardized and they emphasize pounds lost.
This approach doesn't work.
Your goal instead needs to be to alter how you perceive and use food.
