How to Achieve a Healthy Weight Loss and Keep it Off for Good Without Going on a Diet
How many times have you started a “supposed” healthy weight loss diet only to find yourself going back to your old eating habits a week later? You have good intentions, but every diet seems to limit what you eat to bland salads and tasteless fat-free versions of your favorite foods. You get to the point where you feel like this isn’t the kind of lifestyle you want for yourself, so you revert back to the foods that make you happy.
If this has ever happened to you, don’t feel bad. Lots of people go through the same experience, myself included. I spent $2,000 on Nutri-Systems only to lose 60 pounds and gain 80 pounds right back. I got so tired of eating that cardboard tasting food they have, that I went right back to eating the same foods that made me put on the weight in the first place. What was missing was eating real food that did not give me the feeling that I was on “diet” and making the decision to lead to a healthy lifestyle.
I finally lost that 70 pounds about 15 years ago and have kept it off ever since, and I can eat cheesecake as a desert choice on top of it! Why did it work that one time and not all the others? Because I realized that I needed to live a healthy lifestyle beyond making smart choices about food on a daily basis. No, cheesecake is not a smart choice for weight loss. But it doesn’t matter as long as I’m not eating it at every meal!
Basically it all comes down to proper nutrition. When you give your body the right nutrients on a daily basis, even if it’s just for one meal, it allows you to cheat on occasion. No, I cannot eat cheesecake 3 times a day and expect to stay slim and fit. No one can unless you are under 20 and can burn calories faster than you can eat. But as you get older and your metabolism slows down, it does not mean you have to get fat. It just means you have to change your way of thinking and adopt a healthy lifestyle.
My weight loss and ideal weight maintenance is the direct result of several choices I make on a daily basis, but it all started with one soy-based protein meal replacement shake. Skeptical as I was, I tried it and it worked because it had a money-back guarantee. The reason it worked was because it provided my body with 2,000 calories worth of proper nutrition in only 200 calories. That means that I would have had to eat a huge meal to get all the nutrients I got in the one shake.
At first, I replaced two meals a day. Then, once I reached my ideal weight, I switched to just replacing one meal. Since I knew this was the best nutrition possible, I choose to have my shake in the morning because my body has been working hard all night processing what I ate during the day and needs to be able to get instant nutrition. This is not possible by eating ham and eggs for breakfast. This has allowed me to eat sensibly throughout the day as I wish, and then splurge for dinner if I want to. Just as long as I go back to my nutritious shake every morning, everything works out fine.
I know what you are thinking…you have to spend the rest of your life drinking a bland protein shake every morning for breakfast? The answer to that question is yes…and no. First of all, the shake comes in many flavors and can be prepared lots of different ways…and it tastes delicious! Most people skip breakfast…I drink a smoothie instead. Once you get the right nutrition in your body, you begin to feel so good that you can’t imagine starting off a day any other way.
Remember when I said losing weight and keeping it off for good requires making healthy lifestyle choices? This shake I take every morning is one of them. Another is 30 minutes of cardio-vascular exercise every day. Just like drinking the shake, this became just as routine in my schedule as watching tv every night. It is possible to lose weight without exercise, but when you add it into the mix you are doing yourself a huge favor.
Notice how I have not said anything yet about counting calories or weighing myself? That’s because it’s not necessary when you feed your body proper nutrition on a daily basis. Those are things that yo-yo dieters focus on and they never lose weight. They would rather follow fad diet and after fad diet to try to take the easy way out…but it’s not so easy is it? Cheaters never prosper and it’s no different for losing weight. You must learn to develop and healthy lifestyle.
Diet and fat free versions of your favorite foods are often worse than the fatty versions because they are not natural. Anything all-natural is a smarter choice than something altered for the sake of convincing you to buy it for weight loss. The key is moderation. Part of living a healthy lifestyle is realizing you do not need to eat pizza and fettucini alfredo every time you sit down for a meal. It all comes down to making intelligent decisions about what you eat and how often you eat it.
In order for you to lose weight and keep it off for good without constantly being on a diet, you have to decide that you need to develop the mindset of a person living a healthy lifestyle. Start with getting proper nutrition into your body, then begin making small daily choices in the right direction with exercise and food. Soon you will realize that a diet is nothing more than something that used to hold you back.