How many times have you thought that you need to lose weight and looked to the latest diet trend to help you through? Whether it is Atkins, Paleo, or just eating fewer calories. You can’t forget that you have to include some type of exercise to keep that weight down.
It has worked for others so why wouldn’t it work for you?
You start cutting those calories and you start getting results but then something happens. Those pounds you lost start creeping back on and in 6 months time you are back to square one and looking for the next diet to help you lose weight.
The Quick Fix
Diets promise a quick fix to shedding pounds in a short space of time or with little to no effort. No wonder so many have tried them. Now, if a diet really worked wouldn’t everyone do it?
Why would there need to be 2, 3 or 4 new diets every year? The diet trend is part of the $20 billion dollar weight loss industry.
Do these diets work or are they just a money making gimmick?
It is easy to blame the diet, yourself or food, but the real reason is that as a society you? re looking for something outside of yourself to fix your problem.
A diet is seen as a quick fix, a small change that we can dip in and out of to lose weight. When in actuality, to lose weight and keep it off, you need to make a change in the way you relate to food.
Putting on weight has taken you years so why would it take 8 weeks to lose half your body fat?
And say you do lose some weight, how long can you sustain that diet for? Another 8 weeks? The rest of your life?
How would you feel being on a diet for the rest of your life? ‘Not too good right?’
You love your food, you just want to lose the weight and look and feel a bit better. However if you could still eat what you want, lose weight and keep it off, how would that sound?
What I am going to propose is nothing new, nothing radical, but it works.
How to lose weight
And the magic formula – evaluating and changing what you eat on a daily basis whilst incorporating exercise into your life.
And this is not a quick fix. You are not going to change your diet and exercise for just a week or two, you need to change your lifestyle.
You have to curb your eating and you must exercise at least 3 times a week. And even then is that enough? You may not realise a number of calories you eat in food and don’t even realise what is the cause of your weight gain.
A good example is coffee. A venti latte from Starbucks is 250 calories. Not a lot you may think but it would take you approximately 20 minutes to burn that off on a treadmill with a brisk run.
Over the course of a week (1 latte/5 times a week) that’s 1250 calories which equates to a bar of Cadburys milk chocolate
And that’s just your daily coffee break so, really think about how you cook and what you eat on a daily basis, including every coffee break and snack.
Knowledge is power. By thinking about what you are eating you will be able to assess if you really need it.
Once you do this you will be able to reevaluate what you eat and come up with a new way of eating.
Instead of a venti latte have a tall americano with a dash of semi-skimmed milk
Give it 20 days and after that, you won’t crave the amount of l sugar, cream and general junk food you once did.
Exercise
You need to plan when you are going to exercise and stick with it. ?
It is not enough to say you are going on Monday, Wednesday and Friday you need to check your diary, and schedule in the time and not break it.
In the same way, you would see your friends if you scheduled them in, so too should you exercise when you say you will.
And know what exercises you are going to do. Pick a sport, have direction and purpose because otherwise, you will be wasting time in the gym not getting results.
Losing weight and being healthy are a lifestyle choice. There is no quick fix.
It needs to become a part of your identity.
Keep going until it becomes a habit and a part of you.
Start making you a priority.