Most of us go through some sort of weight loss journey in our lifetimes, if lucky. We may be doing it after gaining weight in college, having a baby, or just getting lazy. At one time or another, we turn to quick fix diets, weight loss pills, caffeine, and the media to give us our answer on how to be the next thinnest thing. Something or someone lights a fire under our ass to tell us it’s time to lose a few. Whether it’s to the point of a doctor explaining your cholesterol and triglycerides are high, to an upcoming best friends wedding in a bridesmaids dress we are already regretting- there is a time to lose weight.
Most of us will turn to anything and everything that is low-fat, low-cal, low-anything, to lose a few pounds. Then we realize that all of our efforts on the low-food isn’t working and hit the gym. And after we lose 3 pounds from wearing down our legs on that horribly boring treadmill, we feel elated. Deflated. Utterly discouraged. And give up.
But I’m here to show you it can be easy to be healthy. The hard part is getting sculpted like an Olympic athlete – that takes time.
Behavior Changes
The main way to lose weight and keep it off is to change our behaviors. We must change our connection to food. Food brings us joy, is there to comfort us, and is there to help us celebrate. But most of the time, that food is unhealthy, packed with calories, and sinfully delicious. And I mean sinfully!
To start, we must disconnect food from emotions, and connect it to what it truly is: fuel.
A calorie is a unit of measure that nutritionists use to determine how much energy a certain piece of food can give us. If we eat too much, it gets stored as fat. If we eat too little, our body feeds off that fat. (Yay!)
Behavior change number one is to start reading labels. Read how many calories a food is, how much each serving is, the amount of fat and sugar in each serving, and so on. Get to know the food you are eating before you eat it. Move on down to the ingredients. Do you recognize them? Could you picture them in your head? If not, chances are the product is full of things you don’t want to be putting in your body. Start with this simple change this week, and next week we’ll add another.
Good Luck,
Nicole
Nixie Dee 