Dieting is a hard thing to do. Dieting doesn’t only consist of changing your eating habits but programming your mind to seeing a slimmer you. It, also, consists of finding a way to stop cravings, eating between meals, snacking on junk food and eating healthy. As soon as we hear the word diet, we cringe. We start saying that means I can’t eat a slice of pizza, no more candy or cakes; I have to eat carrots and start exercising. Just thinking about it makes us tire and without even beginning, we give up. It’s not an easy task, trying to get healthy again but it’s something worth doing.
The rate of obesity throughout the world is higher and higher each year. Our children are heading down that road as we speak. Our bad habits are overflowing to the children. But how do we stop this vicious cycle? First, we have to begin with ourselves. We can’t impose rules on others if we can’t keep to them ourselves.
We can begin by getting rid of the negative thoughts. It’s so much easier to give in to our exhaustion and lack of enthusiasm than to find energy to workout When you see yourself, see a slimmer you, a healthier you and believe it.
OUR MIND
Researchers have found that the old saying “mind over matter” is true. See, our brains can boost immunity, ease pain, boost motivation, help you lose weight and keep it off. What you have to do is change the way you think and see yourself. Get rid of all those negative thoughts you have about yourself. Don’t utter negative comments about yourself, don’t put yourself down.
Every day for a few minutes, take the time to see yourself in those skinny jeans you want. See yourself at your goal weight. See yourself getting slimmer and healthier. Imaging yourself in a particular outfit you wish so much to wear and see yourself getting compliments. All it takes is a few minutes a day. You can do it more than once a day, whenever you feel like you want to give up, quickly say positive things about yourself.
Researchers found that it helped a person lose more weight and faster. They also noticed that they kept the weight off, longer than any other dieters. Those cravings will go away, you will feel more energetic and will be able to reach and keep your goal weight. Don’t think dieting means you can’t eat anymore, just that you have to eat healthier.
EXERCISING
You probably haven’t exercised in a very long time. How do you get back into that? When you get out of work, all you want to do is go home, eat dinner, take a shower and sit down in front of the television set and just do nothing for the rest of the night. You are so exhausted you can’t think straight. Start by walking at least 5 days a week. This will help your body start burning some calories and help you get use to exercising again.
Every time you go walking stretch a little first. Get those muscles warmed up; you definitely don’t want to get a cramp in your leg while you’re walking. It doesn’t feel good and you definitely don’t want to scream out loud in pain.
Your first week, you should walk at least 15 minutes. The second week, increase your walking time to 30 minutes and try to increase your speed. Your third week, increase your walking time to 45 minutes and add a little more speed. The fourth week, increase it to an hour and hopefully by this time you are walking faster. You won’t even notice it.
They say it's not a good idea to go to the gym immediately after you begin your diet. Give your body some time to adjust to the exercising and the diet. When you do decide to go to a gym try talk to a trainer, they can give you pointers. They will help yo find a routine that wil help you tone your body. You don't want to overdo it other wise, you will end up with the buil to of a body builder (unless that is what you want).
NEVER SAY DIET
This is the hardest part of all, the diet itself. Watching what you eat. The biggest mistake we make is that we feel we can’t eat anything. That is not true, you can eat a little of everything but the right way.
Okay, let’s say you have decided you are getting on a low calorie diet but you are the type of person that likes to eat pizza, maybe sweets, there is a way to do this. You can choose one day of the week to eat something you love so much, sort of a reward. This allows your body and you to realize that it is not a starvation diet. They also say that if you crave something, just eat one spoonful of it, enough to make the cravings go away. Remember, you can do this, it’s all mind over matter.
When you decide to lose weight, plan your meals, be creative and make them tasty. Don’t make everything green; only eat low carbs, no carbs, all protein, no protein or just salads. Those types of diets make you hungry and deprive you of some foods you do need to keep you going. You get tired of it and give up. You definitely don’t want to give up, you want to push on, get to your goal.
Instead find a way to combine it all but make it a low calorie diet. By the way, yes, you can eat a low calorie diet and enjoy it. You will also find it delicious and wonder why you didn’t do this earlier. Now you might think “low calorie” means again, no food, or in actuality no good foods. That is not true. You can make low calorie meals that are delicious, rich and healthy. Just take the time to plan, your meals. You’ll be amazed as to what you can eat and you will be on your way to your goal without complaining.
VITAMINS/SHAKES
Don’t leave behind the vitamins. You need to make sure you take your vitamins on a daily basis. You are exercising, burning energy; you need to keep your body going. When you decide to take vitamins, check them all out. A daily vitamin is good for us, of course, you might need additional supplements.
Some will need additional calcium, others vitamin C or B complex. There are a lot of vitamins out there, protein drinks, if you are not too careful, you end up taking too much of something you don’t need.
Talk to someone first, a professional that can help you choose what is best for you. Be careful, some of the vitamin shops have sales reps that tell you that at least 50 things are good for you. They fill your bag up with everything they can find and in reality you may not need. Keep it simple, you don’t want to sit down every morning at breakfast and dinner with a plate full of vitamins, 20 or more. You will get tired of that and quick.
DIET SUPPLEMENTS
Stay away from those diet supplements that are sold at the stores. Really they are not necessary. By taking these supplements, you are actually putting yourself at risk. Some of these diet supplements accelerate your heart; can cause you to have palpitations, make you anxious, jittery, moody, and upset your stomach. They are not good for you at all. If you feel you the need supplements to keep yourself going, do some research on vitamins. There are some vitamin supplements that naturally boost your metabolism, helping you burn more calories. Again, just like everything else, all in moderation, some vitamin supplements have side effects.