Something strange happens to me when I hand my I.D. to anyone requesting it. They look at the driver’s license, then at me, then at the license, then at me again.

"You've lost a lot of weight!" one sales clerk at a department store recently exclaimed.

"Was it on purpose?" another asked while she rang up my new workout clothing. I had explained that I had lost more than a hundred pounds.

The initial surprise is always followed by questions asking how I lost the weight. The answer is complicated because it wasn't one thing but a series of actions and changes over time that yielded success. It was a combination of exercise and dieting, but that answer understates the number of new behaviors and habits I had to adopt.

There are a few particular changes, however, that had the most impact. Whether you’re looking for healthy habits to adopt for you in the New Year or want to encourage healthy behavior in nieces and nephews, below are a few things that were most helpful to me during my weight loss journey.

Move! Make exercise a regular occurrence.

My exercise habit started by chance. I woke up one weekend morning to an email from a snarky colleague, and to handle my frustration, I went out to walk the mile square park near my house. By mile four, I thought I might collapse. But when I got home, after a total of five miles, my anxiety was gone and I was prepared to respond with calm professionalism and power. I realized that day I had to make exercise a priority in my life.

It takes a lot of time to exercise off a pound, somewhere between four and ten hours for me, depending on type and pace. So exercise wasn't the primary driver for my weight loss. Instead, it made me start to examine my food intake, reduce emotional eating through stress reduction, and improve my decision-making. Additionally, I started to love my body, love what it could do. I was amazed by how quickly it responded to positive care.

I began exercising first thing in the morning every morning, and within a week, I was walking faster and my breathing was better. I challenged myself with more intense and different types of exercise. I slept better. I had new endorphins in my system and I was relaxed and happier. Starting with movement also reminded me that I was committing to good health choices for the day.

So if you want to start by adopting one healthy habit, make it more movement. In addition to burning calories, you’ll reap mental health and motivation benefits that make it easier to practice other healthy habits.

Calories are fuel. Learn the math, measure, and track.

I had a serious math problem to tackle when I started. Consuming too many calories had led to weight gain. I needed to reverse overconsumption and instead keep my body performing on a calorie deficit. In spite of all the diets I had tried in the past, I wasn’t accurately capturing my intake and output. The point systems, packaged food requirements, and quick weight loss promises from diet methods had just created more confusion in my mind. As a result, I often set unrealistic weight loss expectations for myself, only to be disappointed when I didn’t hit my ridiculous goals.

At first I used a modified liquid diet plan, drinking low-carb and low-fat drinks and soups and eating a healthy dinner of lean protein and vegetables. This simplified the diet process. But eventually, I was bored with the monotony of the same meals every day. I wanted to learn how to eat correctly and enjoy a wider variety of foods again.

Chris Powell’s Choose More, Lose More for Life provided the information I was seeking. A simple explanation about calories in a pound and how much I burned at my height and age, helped me understand better my daily requirements for maintaining or losing weight. I became familiar with serving sizes and read nutrition labels more closely. I quickly realized I needed to measure and track my food. For example, I was surprised at how many calories worth of half-and-half I was using in my coffee each day. I built a tracker that allowed me to record on paper what I was eating. The MyFitnessPal app and website also helped me calculate calories eaten or burned. But for me the act of tracking on paper kept me accountable to myself as I went through the day. When I stepped on the scale, I was no longer surprised by what I saw because I had set the right expectations about the weight I would lose.

Know what you can't give up but portion it.

I shop the fresh categories in the grocery store more than others. While this includes the produce section, it also includes the cheese aisle. I would feel deprived if I eliminated cheese from my food plan and I know how deprivation can lead to future overeating. Meanwhile, I have learned from measuring and tracking that my idea of what constitutes a serving is different than what an actual serving is. Rather than buy blocks of cheddar, I buy slices.

Junk food doesn’t make it into my cart. No chips. No cookies. No ice cream. To state the obvious, it is a lot more difficult to overindulge in junk food if it isn’t in the house. I do enjoy these items once in a while when I am at a restaurant or party. But I understand that people have limited willpower and rather than test mine, I keep healthier food in the fridge and cupboards.

Be tough. Be kind.

There was a period of time where I had given up on myself. For many years, I had decided that I was overweight and that was just how it was going to be. Although I felt worse physically and mentally, I had come to the conclusion that it was too hard to be healthy.

At that time, I needed to be tougher on myself because I had given up unnecessarily. Being healthy was within my power and I was wrong to tell myself otherwise.

Weight loss isn’t easy. It’s really, really hard! But the physical and emotional rewards of getting healthy are within grasp for anyone willing to do the work. If you think you can’t do it, you need to be tougher on yourself because you can.

At the same time, be kind to yourself. Gaining weight is really, really easy and we have food temptations all around us. I occasionally overindulge for a meal or a day. Rather than berate myself for eating too much, I just get back on my food plan at the next meal.

So be tough and gentle on yourself at the same time because there is a healthier life waiting for you.

A word about nieces and nephews

How to best support children who are struggling with their weight is tricky. On one hand, we must avoid providing direction or making statements about their bodies and weight that could lead to feelings of shame and negative self-image, only worsening their problems. On the other hand, we want them to be healthy. Below are a few things we can do:

-Encourage movement and plan activities that get their bodies moving.

-Model healthy behavior and provide an example to follow.

-Explain the healthy choices we make and why we make them.

-Celebrate our nieces and nephews when they make positive health changes.

-Teach them about nutrition and the way our bodies use or store calories.

-Remind them that they are strong enough to handle challenges.

-Love them no matter what!

Photo: vasile23 via Flickr cc
Published: December 31, 2013