Make this one small and easy change in the way you THINK about food.
And you will begin losing weight — fat weight — including in your stomach and thighs and your entire body.
Here’s What to Do
Get away from the requirement that every time you eat, it must be delicious.
To expect every bite of food you ever eat to be delectable will sabotage your weight loss efforts.
Instead of expecting and requiring food to be an indulgence, think of food as sustenance, fuel for the body, and something that’s health-giving to the body.
By viewing food this way, you will no longer feel it’s necessary to have pancakes or waffles drenched in syrup for breakfast, or a sausage burrito for lunch.
Or fatty meat and buttery mashed potatoes soaked in gravy for dinner.
“Treat food as a source of nourishment to your body cells and tissues,” says Prajakta Apte, RDN, owner and founder of Right Nutrition Works who helps people create a healthier lifestyle.
“Learn to enjoy food in its natural form such as fresh fruits, and not in the form of fruit juices or fruit roll-ups.
“Avoid eating veggie chips as an alternative to fresh vegetables.
“Foods in their natural/original form act as a medicine to maintain, prevent and treat disease.”
Certainly this all doesn’t mean eat food that tastes like cardboard.
But do some investigating and experimenting with recipes and foods you’ve never tried in their whole form — and you may end up pleasantly surprised: “I can do this!”
For instance, some people have become conditioned to believe that breakfast must be a big production of heavy rich food, always including some kind of pastry — along with the toast, sugary jams and carb-crazed orange juice from a carton.
But you don’t have to “enjoy” every bite you eat in the day.
Get away from this thinking, and you will finally lose weight and keep it off.
Instead of the orange juice, have a whole orange, grapefruit or melon chunks.
And why have a pastry at breakfast when you know you’ll be craving a dessert-type food after dinner?
Replace the pastry with whole grain bread. However, even bread can be a problem. Aim for a brand with the fewest ingredients.
Maybe you’ll be able to eventually replace the bread with steel-cut oats sweetened naturally.
A sample lunch might be a tuna or chicken salad with a boiled potato and vegetables — rather than fast-food fare.
If you’re hungry 90 minutes later, that’s fine; who says that one feeding must satiate you for hours?
Have some fruit, or plain yogurt or kefir, or maybe some nuts or several squares of dark chocolate as a snack.
If food is always for sinful pleasure, you’ll end up snacking on ice cream, cookies, brownies, bon bons, tortilla chips drenched in cheese, etc.
If food is for health and sustenance, you’ll be drawn to a few apples or a banana for your mid-morning snack.
Make this one change to your diet – to the way you think about what you should eat – and weight loss will never be easier.
Prajakta Apte is the author of the eBook “Overcoming Nutrition Roadblocks.” Her personalized approach to nutrition therapies helps treat root causes of conditions such as type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, GI disorders, hypertension and many more.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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