To enjoy successful, long term weight loss you need to change your perspective on how to lose weight and consider how to modify your lifestyle rather than how to go on (another) diet. This can be easier said than done for many ‘dieters’ who have carried excess weight for years and tried varied approaches, including a calories loss food program. To regain their body shape and good health they need to modify their lives not just the food they eat and see their body as a friend that needs to well cared for.
For the likelihood of a longer life and happier disposition, you will do well to spend time and effort now, developing a healthier body. The best foods to eat come from each of the major food categories and are there is enough variety across these to make your new meals and snacks sufficiently different and interesting. The benefits of eating well from a calories loss menu are many but some of the shorter term benefits include better sleep, more energy and a boost to your metabolism where the calories you eat are processed more efficiently.
Rounded weight loss programs include an exercise routine as well as a menu of healthy foods. Regular exercise matched to your age and body type helps your body regain its strength and assists you to boost your metabolism. So as you exercise by walking, jogging, swimming or even pumping weights you are building muscle and burning calories.
When you understand the principles of healthy eating, and include a variety of food types in your diet, you do not need a set menu for every meal. A salad and juice is an easy lunch selection and longer term decisions about food at the supermarket can ensure calories loss meals across the week. Frozen cheesecake and ice-cream can be avoided and replaced by fresh fruit in season and a healthy alternative to fried chicken and potatoes in sour cream can be grilled chicken breast with steamed vegetables.
The size of our food servings is a key to successful weight loss and often misunderstood by many. As a general rule we do not understand the significance of this and eat around double the amount of food we should at each meal time and then more in between. One way to gauge accurately the portion size we should eat is to look at the size of our closed fist as this is the size of our stomach.
Visualize your stomach by looking at your closed fist. Then remember the size of the last meal you ate and imagine how it would have fit into your stomach. The only way your stomach can fit the large amounts food we eat, is by stretching and this means that we are often unaware of the excess food we consume.
At your next meal scale down the amount of food you eat so that it only fits into your closed fist. You will find that this limits the food you eat and means that you will need to eat another smaller meal sooner than you generally would. Eating smaller meals of this size, 4-5 times a day is a more successful way to bring about weight loss than eating the traditionally larger meals three times each day.
Calories loss meals containing a variety of healthy foods are at the heart of long term weight loss but your stomach has been an additional, unknown secret to this for too long. The way to eat and the frequency of your meals is another aspect of your new and healthy lifestyle that needs you to consider, accommodate and act upon. Enjoy the benefits of this in a body that you will come to like much more day after day.
