Did you ever wonder how people in some European countries manage to stay thin? When I was in Europe I didn’t see low-calorie food. Restaurants had no diet food or low-calorie meals. But no one was what we call obese. I’ve personally been to more than 15 European countries and normal people are in better shape than Americans.
I read a non-diet book last year “The secret of eating” where the author explains that diets don’t work. Most of us think of a diet as something that's temporary. This is a weight loss book about how this woman had gained 20 pounds while going to school in the States and then lost the weight when returning to France, her home country. She goes on to say that in France women don’t get fat. In the States when she was going to school the portions of food were too large and foods were too sweet.
When returning to Europe she returned home and returned to eating the way she grew up. In Europe, women eat sensibly. Good food of very high quality and eaten in small portions. Good food does not mean good tasting, it means food of good quality. You can eat anything you like but eat the food of good quality, high in nutritional value. Small portions eaten slowly are better for you, and are satisfying.
In the States, people eat too fast, and we’re always in a hurry to get somewhere. Eat on the run, I see people eat while driving every day. Women feed their children in the car while driving them somewhere. Drive-thru windows are so crowded they should have a gas pump halfway to the window. Sometimes I spend 20 minutes in line for coffee, and I stopped that. No more drive-thru’s, if I can’t stop and eat or drink at a table or counter then I don’t need to.
You know it wasn’t always this way. Families use to eat together. At school, all the kids eat together in the cafeteria. But at home, we eat individually when we’re hungry. Maybe that’s why families eat out more. It might be the only way to get everyone together.
This plan is for anyone who had trouble sticking to a diet plan. “Don’t Get Fat” is a 3-month plan meant to reset your body for a lifetime of healthy weight through slow, gradual weight loss. She goes on to say that many people will love the plan because there are no fitness classes but instead plenty of daily activity and lots of walking. Lots of walking is what people do in other countries and Americans don’t do.
To jump-start your diet you begin with two days of leek soup. It cleanses the system so you can start out empty. Followed by meat or fish, vegetables, and a piece of fruit. Drink water with meals, and be careful of bottled drinks or any drinks with sugar or sweeteners, those are empty calories. Not good.
In the beginning, keep a food journal. While losing weight you need to evaluate your diet and identify excess calories. You will be able to eat anything after you reach your goal. A big part of reaching that goal is to learn to eat smaller portions. You may want to start by eating 4 or 5 meals a day about 3 hours apart. At night I snack on yogurt, low-fat greek yogurt is filling. You can eat yogurt 2 or 3 times a day, a great snack full of calcium and protein. Almonds are a good snack in the afternoon. Change what you eat and how you eat and you’ll lose weight. If you change what you eat, start to eat healthily, avoid processed foods (those are pre-made foods that are ready-to-eat), and no dairy but you can eat non-fat greek yogurt, no wheat, and no sugar or any artificial sweeteners.
I know what you thinking and yes this is a weight loss diet, but it’s a lifestyle change. You learn a new way to eat, a way that you will stay with from now on.
If you're going to succeed in losing weight and return to a healthy life, you have to forget everything you're doing now. You have to forget about the foods you eat now, and start over. Whatever you’ve been doing to lose weight hasn’t worked and whatever diets you’ve tried only gave you temporary weight loss, so if you really want to change your life and become a thinner version of yourself and a healthier person who will live a longer happier life, you need to start over.
Anything you’ve been eating will only put weight on you. You need to find a new diet with the food you want to eat and that is healthy. You don’t have to starve yourself but anything you eat needs to be beneficial to your body. Your food has to give your body energy, but not the energy spike you get from carbs or sugar but real energy that will stay with you. Processed foods will give you an energy high, but then you’ll crash about an hour or two later and you get more food cravings. This is what leads to over-eating. Eating foods with nutritional value that give you a temporary boost in energy, like a soft drink, and then in a short time, you need more. These foods or drinks actually cause an addiction. Sugar is an example of a food that can cause addiction and now science believes that enriched wheat is another man-made product that causes addiction. It may be as bad for you as sugar.
Things like sugar and wheat have not always caused eating disorders or addictions. We are not eating the same things today that your grandparents did. A few decades ago, manufacturers of raw material foods like wheat, sugar, and white flour to name a few decided to change the way these raw materials were processed. So now when you read a food label wheat, for instance, is now enriched wheat, and the flour you buy says enriched flour. In the process of enriching the grain, they added chemicals to make the grains grow faster, so grains are more resistant to bugs and so they can increase productivity and increase profits. You wonder why a lot of your food comes from other countries. Yes, labor is cheaper in other countries, but using chemicals to enrich foods is not against the law. They can use chemicals in other countries that we have banned in the U.S. For instance, some of our best pesticides in this country were banned because they’re harmful to humans, but most other countries still use those pesticides in food production, and then they sell that food to U.S. Retailers and it’s sold in grocery stores.
But that’s not the whole story, food suppliers to restaurants will buy that food to save money. Those french fries you buy in restaurants aren’t grown in Idaho. Yes, in the grocery stores they have to label the food so you know what country it comes from, but restaurants don’t have to tell you and in most cases, they don’t know.
So if you genuinely want to be a fit, thinner and healthier version of yourself, you’ll have to start over. Do the research and find foods that are good for you and eats you’ll stick with. Your next diet is your diet for life. I picked the Mediterranean diet, it’s not a weight loss diet but you will lose weight and become a healthier person and you can stay with it for life. You can find it on the web. Remember there are no shortcuts, you have to commit and stay with the plan. After 3 months if the plan doesn’t work for you, don’t give up, try another plan.
Weight Watchers is not for everyone but it will work if you follow the plan. They teach you how to eat and give you the support you need.
Whatever plan you decide on and there are dozens, you want one that you can follow for life, remember there are no shortcuts.
Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.
If you really want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.
There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans.
Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.
My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.
No comments:
Post a Comment