Eat Healthily, Don’t Diet. 10 Ways to do This

As a personal trainer I have seen hundreds of people yo-yo dieting. They will get to a point where they think they need to go on a diet, they do it, lose weight, eventually fail and return to their old problemed eating ways and ultimately put the weight back on.

Why does this happen?
• Lack of will power
• Lack of food choices
• Lack of support
• Lack of time
• Wrong choice of diet
• Lack of knowledge

Yes all of these are legitimate reasons for people failing at their diets but I think most people by saying, they are going to diet are destined to fail. I read that 98% of people who diet, fail. I find this very believable.

I feel as if by saying to yourself you are going to start dieting you are viewing it as a short term answer to your weight loss problems. Why not just say I am going to eat healthily from now on. When people diet they give up all of the bad things at once and within a couple of weeks the cravings are so bad and the body can’t handle it, they feel down, depressed and then they crack and eat badly. It is a quick fix rather than a long term behaviour change.

Being on a diet will add mental pressure to you which can ultimately lead you to fail. The best solution is to (if you have a problem) slowly start to get rid of the foods and drinks which hold us back, make a list of 5 things which don’t help you towards your weight loss goals and remove them one at a time every couple of weeks. By cutting them all out at the same time your body (mentally) will be missing so many things at once, by eliminating one at a time the change will not seem so drastic mentally and physically.

By doing this your body will not feel so starved and stressed and will be able to cope a lot better.

10 rules to remember in order to eat healthily and change your behaviour long term:
• Eat unrefined quality carbohydrates instead of heavily processed carbohydrates. A good rule is to go for things brown in colour with visible seeds.
• Drink a lot of water throughout the day.
• Don’t have carbohydrate only meals.
• Get your 5 a day.
• Avoid mindless unhealthy snacking, eat things such as fruit and nuts between meals rather than chocolate and crisps.
• Avoid processed foods and go for natural organic foods instead.
• Eat a wild range of foods to ensure your body is getting all of the nutrients it needs.
• Eat quality protein like fish, lean meat and eggs.
• Don’t skip breakfast.
• Cut out saturated fat. Try and avoid foods high in saturated fat as much as possible. Always read the packaging, especially the small print.

Before you do anything you should start with a period of detox. Another reason why diets fail is because people don’t detox prior to dieting. Dieting without a detox is like getting a freshly baked cake and putting it into a dirty bin, the cake will eventually become as dirty as everything around it.

The aim of a detox is to remove all of the bad things from our body and get it functioning like it was designed to do so. Without doing this the body isn’t working to its full potential which makes the diet more difficult. A fully working body will be best for getting rid of excess fat and weight. So by detoxing first your body will be in a prime position to get rid of all the unwanted fat. By dieting without a detox you’ve made a bit of a false start and are up against it all ready.

Our body is brilliant! It cures disease, pumps bloody around the body, and has organs which enable us to stay at an optimum weight level. But by overloading our organs with processed junk they start to damage which affects how they function, leading to weight gain. Detoxing for anytime between 3-28 days every few months will help to return your body to working just as it was designed to.

So by putting your body through a period of detoxification, sticking to the 10 rules above alongside a great exercise programme you will turn your body into a fat burning machine!

Stay Healthy,

Richard Clarke