This may seem counterintuitive. The fact that we consider people who are at their proper weight to be healthier is a serious problem. So serious that it causes many of us to jump on fad diets that produce relatively quick weight loss – and the healthy, more attractive look we seek.
The problems happen because many of those crash diets rob us of the basic nutrition we need to live healthily. So while the diets make us look healthy, they can actually make us quite unhealthy.
Weight loss without proper nutrition isn’t just unhealthy, it’s unsustainable. It’s why so few people actually manage to keep off the weight they lost in a fad diet.
If you choose instead to adopt healthy eating habits that include the right nutrition, you will still lose weight, but you’ll also have the energy to enjoy the new you:
1. Make Produce a Part of Every Meal
Where do we begin? Fruits and vegetables deliver incredibly high quantities of a wide variety of nutrients, including vitamins and minerals. But they keep you healthy and help you lose weight in other ways too. Packed with antioxidants, fruits and vegetables help prevent a long list of chronic diseases including some cancers, stroke and heart disease. When you make them part of every meal, their high fibre content helps make you feel fuller so you eat fewer foods that are higher in calories.
2. Eat Only Whole Grains
Refined grains are stripped of most of their nutrients and fibre in the refinement process. While more of us make choices like whole grain bread, we still eat less than a cup of whole grains a day, on average. It’s important to make the shift to whole grains in the other grain or grain-based foods you eat, including pasta, rice and baked goods.
3. Reduce Sugar Everywhere You Can
We love its taste so much, food manufacturers use incredible quantities of sugars in their products, and they often add them in places you wouldn’t expect. For example, you would expect most packaged cookies to be high in sugar, but you probably wouldn’t think that there are two teaspoons of sugar (one quarter of your recommended maximum intake) in a single Oreo cookie. And you would never think that Oreo cookie would have the same sugar content as two tablespoons of Kraft Barbecue Sauce. Be vigilant. Unhealthy levels of sugar lurk everywhere. The more sugary foods you eat, the fewer nutrients you get.
4. Drink Water.
Yes, water isn’t particularly “nutritious”. But water itself is considered an essential nutrient because of the crucial role it plays in our existence. Water accounts for 50% to 80% of our body weight. It is necessary for all the biochemical reactions in our bodies. That includes things like digesting food, dissolving nutrients and transporting them, and getting rid of waste. Water fills the spaces between all our cells and it keeps our joints “lubed” and working smoothly. Basically, without water we would die.
Water promotes weight loss in two main ways. First it displaces some of the food we eat. One study found that two glasses before a meal can result in eating 75 to 90 fewer calories. Our bodies also use water to fuel increased physical activity, which boosts our metabolism and burns more calories.
5. Eat Consciously
Simply thinking more about what you eat, how much you eat and when you it can make your diet healthier and help you lose weight. When you become mindful of portion sizes, the times you feel hungry and full, and the outside “triggers” that cause you to eat, (emotions, boredom, advertising), it can be as effective as an entire weight loss program. And when you consciously make more nutritious choices, you give your body the energy it needs to support and sustain weight loss.
It’s a win-win for you. Getting the right nutrition in a balanced diet helps you to maintain your health and makes it easier for you to lose weight and keep it off. There are nutritional consultants at every Herbal One Centre ready right now to help you transition to a healthier, more nutritious diet, and a healthier new you.