If you’re overweight and have tried cutting back on calories, you aren’t doing yourself any justice unless you’re getting adequate nutrition. Just cutting your food intake in half doesn’t mean you’ll get the results you want if that food intake is highly processed food or empty calories or foods. While you may crave these empty calorie foods, which are often loaded with sugar, which is highly addictive, just cutting the amount of them you eat won’t make you healthier. You need to change how you’re eating and get balance and discipline into your eating program.
No matter what the internet site said, simply eating cabbage soup for a month is not healthy.
I’ve seen them all. All the fad diets “guaranteed” to make you shed pounds. Sure, they work for a while because they’re low in calories, but the damage they can do to your body, your energy level and your mindset are awful. The minute you start eating “normal” foods, you gain the weight back and because your metabolism has slowed, often gain even more pounds than you lost.
Find healthy foods you love and eat more of them.
No matter what type of eating plan you have, if you hate the food or miss some of the food you love, you’ll fail. Eating healthy involves making changes. There’s no doubt about it. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the food you eat. After all, food not only sustains the body, good food helps soothe the mind. Healthy eating doesn’t have to be unpleasant. Some of the healthiest dishes I’ve eaten are delicious. By trying new things, you can find foods that soon become your favorites.
Sugar is addictive.
One of the biggest problems faced by people who want to lose weight is that they can’t overcome their addiction to empty calories. Sugar is the toughest one to overcome because it’s as addictive as cocaine. That may sound crazy, but think about it. If you have a piece of sugary candy or some pastry, in a few hours, you crave it again. That’s because it spikes your blood sugar, leaving you feeling great. What goes up, must come down and that blood sugar is no different. You’re back to exhaustion, sometimes worse, and head for the nearest candy counter to get your fix.
- Too often the food we buy for meals has had all the nutrition cooked or processed out of it. It’s replaced with chemicals to extend the shelf life and additives, like sugar, to make it taste better.
- You don’t have to give up every food you love to get a healthy diet. You can eat a smaller amount, less frequently and still get the results you want if the rest of your diet is healthy.
- To ensure you have all the nutrients you need, create a rainbow of colors on your plate. Different colored fruits and vegetables provide different nutrients.
- Learning to substitute one food for another often doesn’t change the flavor, like topping a baked potato with Greek yogurt instead of sour cream for more nutrition and fewer calories.