Most find that diets usually don’t work. What you try is the latest greatest shiny new diet on the market, and you may be able to lose some weight. But more often than not, that weight is likely to return, plus at times more.
The dietitians explain the reason for this is because any diet is based on sheer willpower. When we think of losing weight, it involves summoning up the discipline to stick with it. Once one sees someone who obviously needs to lose weight, we just assume that they lack the drive or are just lazy.
But that’s not always the case, willpower isn’t the sole driving force or responsible for one losing weight, or the secret to successful dieting.
The truth being that even the most motivated of dieters, don’t have the will to resist tempting food that’s placed right in front of them. So the key becomes finding ways of not confronting the food.
The Weight Loss Dilemma
It’s usually our genetic structure which influences our weight and body type. Unfortunately, some are born into obesity, where they’re limited to how much weight they’re likely to gain or lose.
The secondary equation isn’t necessarily hereditary but more situational, where you’re exposed to certain types of food you should be avoiding.
If you’re wanting to reach your most ideal weight and remain there, what you need is to control your environment and attitude, and not just what your craving.
Start With Eating Veggies
Begin by starting every meal during the day by eating vegetables, such as a salad with low cal dressing. Make sure that you have just the vegetables on your plate and nothing else.
If your salad or bite size broccoli is sitting beside a basket of bread with butter, you know what you’re grabbing for first. So always start your meal with just the veggies.
Make Healthy Foods Accessible
Make all of your healthy foods easy to grab and eat. For instance, place them first on your refrigerator shelf. Make available fruit or produce which requires no work or cooking, such as grapes or cherry tomatoes.
For the other healthy foods that may require a bit more maintenance, then dice, slice, or cook them beforehand, and then make them easily available to eat the same way.
Hide Unhealthy Foods
Make foods which are unhealthy more difficult to notice, more harder to grab and eat. Place them in the far reaches of your refrigerator or pantry shelves.
Place them in containers that you can’t see through. Or better yet, choose not to buy foods such as chocolate bars, chips, cookies, or ice cream, and choose to buy their twin healthy doppelganger instead.
Work Hard For The Food
Make it difficult to take amounts of food out from a container, to place into a dish, then needing to put the lid back on and the container away again. If you want more, then force yourself to repeat the process.
This works because most are too tired or lazy, and even the smallest of obstacles reduces the amount that we eat.
Easy Food Up Front
This is a trade secret of the buffets. The more expensive foods are always harder to reach, while there are loads of soup, lettuce, bread, and water right there in front of you.
They also use smaller plates, so once you fill up, it appears that you’re eating lots of food, tricking your mind into feeling fuller sooner.
Stop Thinking Healthy Foods As Healthy
Think of them as just food and not healthy food, otherwise you’ll eat less of them. Learn to find healthy food just as appealing. Think how refreshing those veggies taste on a hot summer day.
How sweet that apple is, how delicious eating those tomatoes are that you planted yourself. How discerning and selective you were picking the freshest and ripest fruits and vegetables from the local farmers market.
Confronting The Temptation
There are situations when there’s tasty food right in front of you. Times when you’re sitting directly in front of a chocolate cake at a birthday. Force yourself to think abstractly instead of how tempting it looks.
Look at that inviting food or whatever anyone else is eating, and then convince yourself how unhealthy that piece of food actually is, rather than it looking devilishly delicious.
Prepare Yourself In Advance
If you know beforehand that you’re going to be faced with a smorgasbord of tempting fatty foods, such as a party with platefuls of delicious appetizers, then have a plan before going in.
Never deprive yourself by telling yourself, “Once the hors-d’oeuvres come around, I’ll just refuse and won’t have any.” Instead, limit yourself to having one of each, then activate your willpower.
Know Your Weaknesses
Develop a plan to work around your vulnerabilities. Do you have a habit of picking up a chocolate bar when you’re at the check-out line. If so, then force yourself to avoid doing so, just ignore the temptation.
Or try out alternates to avoid the appeal, such as shopping at natural health orientated stores which don’t sell junk food. These avoidance strategies will eventually turn into habits, and then you’ll begin behaving that way without needing to think about it.
Savor What You Eat
Whenever you’re eating something, such as that small piece of chocolate, make sure that you savor it. Pay attention to how great it tastes, and that it’s a limited treat.
Don’t get distracted by your environment, as what savoring does is it leads to more enjoyment of the food that you’re eating. It’s known that once you savor anything you eat, you’ll be satisfied with eating smaller portions.