Seemless Navigation of Diet Trends Towards Success For You

Every year after Christmas we are barraged with the latest and greatest diet trends. There are the Grapefruit Diet, the South Beach Diet, the Slim Fast Diet, to name a few. Dieting is helpful to get us kick-started to a new us, but for the sake of keeping the changes in weight we need long-term diet consumption changes. Fad dieting can be hard on the metabolism, and even cause a person to put on more weight in the end.

The main problem we have is the thinking that ‘if some is good, then more is better.’ Take Detox dieting, for example. In the short-term, detoxing is good, but when it is extended beyond a short period of time, vitamin and mineral deficiencies can develop. When that happens, our bodies get more out of whack and then we have opened the door to more potentially more serious problems. In an article by Susan Moores, R.D., titled “Experts Warn of Detox Diet Dangers“, she says, in discussing detox diets;

“While believers claim they feel lighter and more energetic, studies on starvation show the longer you fast, the more lethargic and less focused you become. Because most of these diets contain very little protein, it can be difficult for the body to rebuild lost muscle tissue.
Although people can quickly drop pounds on these diets, the majority of people regain all the weight they lose on any diet, especially the highly restrictive varieties, according to recent research published in American Psychologist, the journal of the American Psychological Association. While people can lose 5 to 10 percent of their weight in the first few months of a diet, up to two-thirds of people regain even more weight than they lost within four or five years, the researchers found.”

You and I usually want a quick fix to the weight problems we have accumulated one forkful at a time. Hence our desire to follow new diet trends that comes along. A jump start is good, but for the long haul, taking it off slowly and naturally can yield lasting results. I, personally, have made a few additional changes to my diet that are reaping dividends in how I look and feel already.

7 Tips For Safe and Long-Term Weight Loss:

1. Consider going gluten free. If you can also go grain free and sugar free (edible grasses free) at the same time you will make even more progress more rapidly. Before you do this, decide if you can at least consider making this a life-time decision. Your results will most likely be way more long-term and sustainable if you do. My daughter and I started with gluten free for health (and genetic) reasons, then decided to experiment with grain free as well, and have now decided that essentially gluten/grain/sugar free is the best. Glutens/grains/sugars are a major contributor in the ‘puffy’ body look of many people.
2. Go cane and corn sugar free. Our bodies convert grains to sugar after we eat them, but with cane and corn sugars our bodies don’t even have to work to convert them. They enter our bloodstream quickly, and then our bodies begin to store the extra immediately as fats. Our blood sugar levels spike and then drop, which then causes a drop in blood sugar so we lose focus and energy. We then reach for more sugar to fix this problem which starts this cycle up again. Meanwhile, we are growing larger by the bite full! Ugh! Eliminating cane and corn sugars for at least 21 days can help us to break the chemical addiction to these sugars that is established, which then manifests itself to us as willpower. That part is lovely! While we are dealing with the cravings, having a cup of warm water mixed with a teaspoon of honey and a teaspoon of cinnamon can take the edge off of the cravings and help us to make it to sugar freedom.
3. Increase your consumption of veggies. Eating more veggies can help to maintain a good amount of fiber in you, which is needed for elimination (Going #2.) Veggies have plenty of carbohydrates, depending on which one’s you eat. Jicama is sweet, as are carrots and bell peppers. Try to get some of your sweet cravings satisfied this way. Here is a good Carb Counter resource for veggies; http://www.carb-counter.net/vegetables.
4. Eat fruits whole. Juicing, which is very popular, can greatly add to your calorie count. Take fresh squeezed orange juice, for instance. One 4 ounce glass of orange juice takes several oranges to produce. Eating one orange, by contrast, will fill you up more because of the fiber you are also eating. There are naturally less calories in one orange, and the fiber is an added blessing to your system. Juicing is one diet trends that can add a lot of calories fast if we are not careful.
5. Eat something every 3 hours. Eating 4-5 times per day keeps our metabolism working hard, and helps to keep our blood sugar stable. This is key, because the more our blood sugar stays stable, the more our bodies feel ‘safe’ to shed extra. Make it a habit to take along little baggies of snacks wherever you go. This one took me a while to get better at, as I would not think about being hungry when I left the house, only to be gone longer than I expected, and then I wanted to ‘eat my arm’ as my blood sugar dropped. Trust me – this feeling is counter-productive to losing weight! One caution, try to keep your portions manageable when eating more times a day.
6. Finish eating when the sun goes down, or if that is not possible, try to be done with food 12 hours before you expect to eat breakfast. Our bodies need a time of fasting, abstaining from foods, to rejuvenate all of our organs and keep things running smoothly. When we can maintain this 12 hours eating, followed by 12 hours of natural fasting, everything works better. It will help our metabolism to stay fit without getting overtaxed as well. You will sleep better too. Yesterday I went on a big bike ride, followed by a workout at the gym, and by the time I got home is was late and I was famished. I should have gone to bed hungry, but instead I ate some chicken curry. It was yummy, but I slept very poorly. My system works much better, and I sleep really well, when I finish eating at sunset. Try experimenting with times to eat dinner and see what works the best for you.
7. Listen to your body. Ok, this may sound a bit wacky, but hear me out. Our bodies will ‘talk’ to us if we will pay attention. For example, do you get hot after eating? You probably ate something that you cannot digest well, or are allergic to. You see, our bodies will heat up when they are fighting something…hence the fevers we get when we get the flu. Take the time to listen to what your body is saying, and you will be amazed. This is a great step in the right direction. When my children were young, and I was teaching them about how to eat, I would tell them to; ‘Eat something when you are hungry and stop eating when you are not hungry anymore. If you get full, you ate too much. Stop faster next time.’

We all want to feel our best, look our best, and be our best. Let’s make the commitment to take a big step toward a healthy and happy future. Instead of follow the diet trends, let’s get ahead of the curve personally by making healthy changes to our regular diets. Getting control of our diet, instead of being controlled by cravings, will help us to feel better about ourselves and be more in control of our lives. It will spread to our attitudes to, because…’We are what we eat, from our heads to our feet.”

Visit our Grain Free Mama’s website at www.gfmamas.com. While you are there, I encourage you to consider our new digital class, Sustainable Clean Eating Made Simple.