Healthy Weight Loss

Just the word “Diet” makes us groan inside because there are so many challenges and unknowns that come along with eating right, choosing the right foods, not breaking your own rules and keeping up with a regular exercise routine while also balancing your meals; Yikes! Almost makes you want to say “to heck with it” right? Well before you throw in the towel; here are 10 Diet Mistakes that are often made that can stand between your weight loss. These can serve as a guide to help you avoid the pitfalls and reach your goals. Keep these mistakes in mind and remember to avoid them. It’ll make your life a whole lot easier if you do.

10 Diet Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

1) Follow a sustainable diet!

Sustainable does not mean losing weight fast and while the speedy option might be the diet you want to go for, those “crash diets” are not only bad for you, they’re impossible to stay on. Those diet plans might help you lose some weight quickly but once you’ve lost the weight you’ll more than likely turn to your old habits and gain back even more weight. Changing your lifestyle and choices will create a sustainable diet that will help you form habits you can stick with for the rest of your life.

2) Skipping breakfast

The statement “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” is based on fact. Breakfast will help keep your body going throughout the day, providing energy that will keep you at the top of your game. If you want to prevent looking for poor choices later due to hunger pains, be sure to include a protein in the morning.

3) Forgetting about your snacks

Often people forget about the snacks they have had during the day then say things like “I don’t know why I don’t lose weight; I eat like a bird”. More than likely the “bird” choked down a candy bar mid-day followed by a carb loaded muffin in the afternoon. If this sounds like you try keeping a food journal and write down everything that enters your mouth until you see a pattern emerge.

4) Going overboard with low-fat foods

It’s easy to feel safe eating low-fat foods but when you double the intake of food that has half the calories you’re still eating just as much. Keep serving size in mind with all snacks and meals so that you don’t end up going over and don’t forget to check for sugar content; low fat and fat free foods are notorious for overdoing the sugar to make them taste better.

5) Drinks can hurt too

Sipping on alcoholic drinks, sugary coffees and sodas can end up costing you hundreds of calories a day. They are often full of sodium and sugar which can lead to feeling bloated and worn out, and with another pound or two packed on at the end of the day.

6) Avoiding water

When you avoid water you end gaining more weight. Water is essential to the way your overall body functions and without having a good amount of it in your system your metabolism will lag and you’ll feel more fatigued. Drink at least eight glasses a day to feel your best. Most people mistake hunger with thirst. It is recommended you drink half your body weight in ounces. So if you weigh 160lbs you need to be drinking at least 80 ounces of water a day.  If you want to add some pizazz to your water add some lemon or cucumber slices for a super refreshing twist.

7) Avoiding dairy products

Many people find that dairy products are bad for you when you are on a diet. Ditching them completely isn’t a good idea however and dairy provides much needed calcium and will boost your metabolism as well. If you are lactose intolerant you may want to avoid all dairy and supplement your calcium through vegetable like broccoli or taking isotonic capable supplements.

8) Drive through meals

Drive through meals may be inexpensive quick fixes but they are extremely unhealthy. Forget the french fries, fried chicken, burgers and buns. Avoid them at all costs and if you have to go to a fast food eatery just make sure to choose the healthiest possible options like a salad.

9) Avoid Scale Jumping

Constantly weighing in and expecting to see significant results are a great way to drive you crazy. Avoid this madness and stop torturing yourself waiting for results. Instead just look at yourself and think about how much better you feel and how great you look once you fit into something besides stretchy pants. Pay attention to the feeling of being bloated dissipating, your clothes fitting looser and watch the inches disappear.

10) Unrealistic expectations

It can be easy to expect to reach your goal in a month but this isn’t going to happen. You didn’t gain it all in one month. It took years as you progressively gained 5-10lbs. So realistically give yourself some time. Make sure that you set realistic goals in order to stay positive. A great way to do this is to set frequent short-term goals and then turn them into reality. Real change takes a while but you’ll start to feel better almost immediately if you stick with a healthy diet plan.

Most people see losing weight as a punishment and being healthy a hard to reach goal.  This attitude alone can put an end to any chance of succeeding at either which is why it’s so important to change your mind set if this sounds like you.  Once we do make up our minds to lose weight, most turn to calorie counting which, while this is a significant part of the equation, can actually make you gain weight and feel miserable.

Following are 7 reasons why calorie counting will make you gain weight.

Reason 1: You’ll be skinny but not healthy!

Losing a lot of weight isn’t enough especially if it’s accomplished by starving yourself, believing that you need to keep calories in the low numbers if you want to lose weight fast.  Dieting this way is not only bad for your health, it’s impossible to sustain and even worse can lead to binge eating. In addition, most dieter’s get so caught up in sticking to the numbers that they don’t make time for exercise which is a crucial part of any diet plan. You need to eat plenty of the right kinds of food, loading up on important nutrients that necessary for healthy weight loss, and exercise to build beautifully toned muscles, reduce stress and yes, burn fat and lose weight.

Reason 2: Calories can lead to overeating

Counting calories can actually lead to overeating and weight gain because oddly enough many dieter’s end up eating more because they tell themselves “it’s low calorie – how can it hurt!”  The fact is that just because it says low calorie doesn’t mean it’s a healthy choice. Any calories from over processed carbohydrates like sugar and white flour (even if it is low calorie) are calories that the body reacts to differently, spiking insulin and blood sugar and storing unhealthy fat instead of burning it.

Reason 3: It will stunt your metabolism

By eating nothing but low calorie foods throughout your day you’ll slow down your metabolism which leads to your body not making the best use of the food you consume. Basically this means that instead of turning food into energy, you’ll be left feeling sluggish and burned out.

Reason 4: Counting Calories is a dangerous game

People will forget to mark down the high calorie treats they give in to. Whether it is on purpose or just forgotten due to human error, these unhealthy calories are still taken in. Instead of letting a number rule your diet you should just make real sustainable changes and smart food choices.

Reason 5: It’s all About the Eating the Right Foods

Eating the right foods and staying away from the wrong ones not only boosts your metabolism, it regulates hormones and turns your body into a highly efficient fat burning machine that remains lean regardless of how much you eat.

Reason 6: It’s a punishing way to lose weight

Guilt is not something that anyone should ever have to live with. Guilt is not healthy and should never be something you put on yourself when it is not necessary and it really never is. Don’t feel ashamed when you go over a calorie limit and instead make sustainable and realistically healthy decisions that you can live with the rest of your life. If you do happen give in to a craving don’t beat yourself up; just get back on track again and move on. There’s always the next meal.

Reason 7: You really don’t know!

Serving sizes, inaccurate calorie measurements and a deliberate media campaign of misinformation all lead to confusion about which foods are nutritious and which are packed with sugars and unhealthy calories. Be sure to carefully read the food labels and make time to do a little research or contact us for help.

When it comes to calories quality is much more important than quantity because quality calories will burn the body’s energy which is the key to sustainable weight loss; it’s really as simple as that. Stop counting calories.

What is Your Food Personalities? We all experience different ones when we are stressed, depressed or looking for love.  It is possible that you may be a little of everything but I found from experience there is usually one that calls to you more than the others. Watch the video and decide what your food personality is. You will learn some tips to help stop emotional eating during the video, but know the first thing is awareness that you are doing it.

Most people are eating to fill a void and it has become a behavior or a knee jerk reaction to help us feel a certain way. Sometimes understanding what causes us to overeat makes it easier to stop and treat overeating.  Tips to help stop emotional eating and get your food under control first starts with identifying which personality you adapt to the most.

5 Food Personalities that Cause Emotional Binge Eating & Compulsively Overeating:

1. Forbidden Love
2. Already Ruined It
3. Learned Helplessness
4. Perfectionist
5. Looking for Something Good

Identify which FOOD Personality you gravitate to and share with me your comments.
Apply some of the strategies suggested in the video and let me know how you are doing.

Binge Eating Disorder, Compulsive Overeating and Bulimia are a real struggle. There are 24 million people with Disordered Eating in the world. Food addictions are the worst, since you cannot stop eating to live. Learning to change the meaning you give food from pleasure to nourishment is just one of many things that needs to happen to help control your urges. People suffer from serious illness as a result of prolonged overeating or starving. If you think you have an addiction to food or just want help to change your habits contact us for help.

Emotional Binge Eating 5 Food Personalities Compulsive Overeating [youtube height=”360″ width=”640″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgWXwhoX0Js&feature=share&list=TL_YlXk7zeJGE[/youtube]