Eat Wise, Drop A Size

There’s a lot to be said when it comes to your diet. You may have heard that if you eat wise, you’ll drop a size quickly. It’s true. I have many clients in Calgary, Canada that are living proof that’s it’s more than just a mindless platitude, it’s fact. Anyone who has any knowledge of fitness knows you can’t out-exercise a bad diet. If you’re putting away a gallon of ice cream and a whole cake, you’d have to exercise for hours to burn off those extra calories and then you still wouldn’t get the nutrients you need to be healthy.

Eating healthy doesn’t mean just celery sticks and rice cakes.

Dieting and healthy eating are two different things. When you diet, you have a regimen of food you’re allowed. You often feel deprived and hungry. In most cases, eating healthy just means you make smarter choices, such as choosing fresh fruit as a snack or veggies and dip, instead of a candy bar or fries. It means making substitutions like using Greek yogurt instead of sour cream for baked potatoes. You’ll never feel hungry when you eat healthy, but changes can be tough at first.

Dropping products with sugar added and processed foods is tough at first.

Giving up products with added sugar is extremely tough. That’s because sugar is addictive. It triggers opioid receptors in the brain, just like addictive drugs. Sugar causes a release of endorphins in your brain and dopamine that is associated with addiction. If you give up sugar entirely, including giving up naturally occurring sugar in fruit and other food, you go through withdrawal stages that some call the keto flu, named after a low carb diet. Most sugar withdrawal symptoms are more like cravings, irritability and depression.

You’ll be amazed at how great you feel and how good healthy food tastes.

It takes a few weeks of eating healthy to realize the difference. One day, you’ll realize how good natural food tastes. Eating too much sugar actually dulls your tastebud’s sensitivity to sugar. It also makes you crave sugar more, so that naturally sweetened food tastes dull. One study showed that people who didn’t crave sugar were given two sugary drinks every day for four weeks, enhanced their craving for added sugary foods and drink. It changed their perception of taste.

• Eating smart also includes drinking smart. Avoid sugary drinks, alcoholic beverages and even artificially sweetened drinks that have their own hazards. Drink water instead and drink it often. It’s a magic elixir for weight loss.
• Avoid highly processed foods. Not only are they low in healthy nutrients, they contain chemicals like preservatives and are often high in sugar and salt. Stick with whole foods and those less processed.
• Eating healthy will help your health and allow you to take weight off quickly and painlessly. Unlike a diet, it’s a way of life. If you eat some high calorie junk food, it might end a diet, but won’t stop healthy eating.
• Eating healthy takes some time and planning, but once you start it, it’s not only easier, it’s also less expensive. When you plan and prepare meals ahead you have less waste and are less prone to spend money on fast food.