Dieting can seem like getting a life sentence. All of us who have struggled for years trying to find a way to the perfect body, have many times lost our way. Why?
It is because we treat diet as a small death. We have to depart with all the things that give our lives meaning and joy. Our lives have become food-centered because food can provide us with instant satisfaction and numb our stress. Let’s turn this drama around…
1. Start slowly your weight loss journey
Most people start a stringent diet and hope to lose excess weight fast. However, it is challenging to stick to such a plan when the day before the body was getting large amounts of unhealthy foods. Give yourself time, it doesn’t have to be more than 1-3 days, to adapt to the new regime.
Eliminate slowly processed foods and replace them with healthier ones. In the process, think about what you are doing and how it makes you feel. Be conscious of your choices and understand what triggers your unhealthy choices. Believe me, it might sound slow, but it is the quickest route to your goal.
Read more about Small Changes For Big Weight Loss Results
2. Eat foods you enjoy
Who said that going on a diet have to make you miserable? If you think that is the rule, think again. Whatever diet regime you incorporate in your daily routine, choose foods that bring you joy. Go to the basics and reset your taste buds. We have been eating so many processed foods that we have lost the sense of what real food tastes like.
Fall in love with cooking, and I don’t mean having to stay in the kitchen for hours to prepare your meal. Try easy and quick recipes, use products with the right nutrients, and make your everyday meals delicious.
3. Don’t starve yourself
Eating fewer calories can sabotage your weight loss. Don’t go to extremes thinking that you can accelerate the process by cutting down your meals. It doesn’t work that way, in fact, you can totally destroy your metabolism. By eating less, your body can get into survival mode, and that isn’t good news.
A slow metabolism equals no weight loss or even to weight gain. Why go through all that torture, only to end up hungry, frustrated, and overweight? Take a deep breath and relax, you are in control. No matter how long it takes, you have to get in the right mindset.
You can totally do this and enjoy the journey. Fall in love with cooking
Read more about How To Make Your Dream Body A Reality
4. Don’t drink your calories
Even if you eat healthily and keep track of everything, there might be hidden calories in what you drink that you don’t take into account. Drinking a coffee with whip cream, sugar, syrups, toppings can add up to over 500 calories easily. This is a meal that could have kept you full for hours.
At the beginning of a new meal plan, you can incorporate alternatives that taste and make you feel good. Use stevia in your coffee, drink lemon or other ingredient infused water and use light sodas – in moderation – if that will help you in the beginning.
5. Eat unprocessed foods
If it doesn’t grow on a tree or on the ground, if it hasn’t been walking on earth or swimming in the sea don’t eat it. It is as simple as that.
6. Change focus
If your mind is solely focused on the diet and your struggle to lose weight, it will make it harder to achieve your goal. Why? It will become an obsession, and your mind will be thinking only about food. Change your focus. Start a hobby, go to the gym, read a book, find a way to enjoy yourself every single day.
You should find other ways to make you feel good. Losing weight is a journey to transform yourself not only from the outside but as well from the inside. If you don’t find a substitute for the emotional addiction that you have to food, sooner or later, when you’ll feel vulnerable, you will turn to those high-calorie unhealthy snacks.
It is a habit, and you have to beat it.
7. Choose a diet that suits you
It doesn’t matter if your bestie lost a ton of weight using a diet and it doesn’t work for you. Everyone is different, and you should research and try to experiment and see what suits you. Keto, intermittent fasting, carnivore, paleo try and see. There is no one way fits all.
It is crucial to educate yourself and learn what your body needs and what gives you energy and vitality.