To Lose Weight, Start Eating More!

Of the good stuff, that is...

You can keep reading this article, or you can watch the video below instead. It's pretty much the same message. Your choice, enjoy!

It’s January. You have decided to lose weight again. Remember, you had the same new year’s resolution last year! There is one thing you can do that will make all the difference this year. It won’t cost you a penny and it won’t make you sweat. Just read on…

Why we fail at losing weight

If we proceed as usual, here is what most of us will do this month. We’ll stop eating the foods we enjoy (because they are supposedly not healthy) and we’ll go on a strict diet to make sure we drop pounds quickly. There is a good chance we’ll get the feeling that we are doing the right thing, because it will be HARD! We’ll get a sense of pride and achievement. Very rewarding! Not to mention encouraging numbers on the scale. At first anyway... Until we get stressed at work, or too tired, or it’s our birthday, or it’s raining outside. Then we will take a break or give up altogether. When will we try again? Next Monday? Next summer? Maybe next year? We will keep trying, we will keep "failing", and we will keep looking for a solution.

Guts and brain can easily be trained

Let’s do things differently this year. Let’s stop focusing solely on eliminating what’s unhealthy for us. We need to start focusing more on adding what we know is healthy. If we add plenty of healthy low-calorie foods to our day, we will naturally end up reducing the amount of junk food we eat. We won’t really notice, but it will happen. First, because we will be less hungry. And second, because little by little, our body will get trained to appreciate better foods.

Our body and guts get used to what we give them. But we have to train them right. It takes a couple of weeks to feel the difference. Many of my clients thought they would never like veggies, and yet, now, they crave them! I received a text one night from a client who had just “caught herself” grabbing a handful of raw spinach in the fridge. She could not believe it! But I wasn’t surprised. That’s how our body works. Give your body more of the right stuff and it will start asking for it. By the way, it works with children too :-).

How to eat more of the good stuff?

Here are some ideas that might help you add some “healthy” into your day. They have worked for others, and maybe they could work for you too:

- adding a bowl of homemade soup to your day (if not homemade, make sure there is no added sugar in it and it’s low sodium);
- at every meal, filling up half of your plate with lettuce or green veggies, and eating that green half first;
- drinking a large glass of water when you get up in the morning, and before each meal or snack;
- eating a cup of plain yogurt each day (with fruits, or with low-sugar granola, or with a banana, nuts, and raisins);
- snacking on an apple before bed every night;
- eating one orange for breakfast every morning (on top of what you usually eat for breakfast);
- having hard-boiled eggs handy in your fridge for a snack...

Those are just a few examples. I can give you many more if you want; just shoot me an email.

 Track Your Goals

Now be careful! The fact that those healthy “add-on’s” don’t require much will-power, makes them easy to forget. When you decide to eliminate all sweets from your life, it’s pretty much all you can think of, because you are starving and frustrated. But when you decide to eat an apple every night, you might just forget about it because it’s not that big of a deal. So make sure you track your new healthy habits, in your planner, in a spreadsheet or with an app... Whatever you prefer. Visualizing your goals every day will keep your good resolutions from falling off your radar.

Not only will the tracking allow you to stay focused, but it will also provide you a sense of achievement, despite the lack of “real” challenge.