You can enjoy your favorite foods and lose weight – yes! You heard that right! You don’t have to starve yourself in the name of health because it is not about suffering. Rather, it is about creating a lifestyle change that suits your personal needs, allowing you to work your way up to get the best version of yourself.
This is how you can get the maximum benefits while you are following a healthy routine. Be it fitness challenges or advice from a personal trainer, creating a supportive and enjoyable environment will help you attain that positive relationship with food.
So, before choosing any group trainer or personal trainer, try to understand whether they have any theories regarding the relationship with food. Do they advocate intermittent fasting and other extreme diet plans, or do they help in improving your overall relationship with food?
How Does Food Help You?
The first thing you need to do is to develop a healthy relationship with food. Having a positive relationship with food will yield positive results. Yet a level of discernment must be exercised. It is important to simultaneously understand that food is fuel and that there are certain foods it is better to stay away from or consume in moderation.
This works well on the psychological level as well as the physical level. Once you are ready to understand the depth behind it, you will surely be ready to see that the food you consume will actually help you attain your goals instead of them becoming a hurdle for you. After all, it is about the attitude towards food, not the food itself, whether it is good or bad.
Fitness challenges or personal training classes may help you understand the different dynamics of how food helps you in numerous ways. Look for packages that also educate you about nutrition, so you get the whole dimension instead of having only a bunch of exercises. Look at your fitness plans holistically.
If you are currently in search of a specialist to help you reach your goals, check out Fitnello Fitness, a fitness and nutrition platform that aids women in personal training, meal planning, and body transformations online or in-person at their Rocklin flagship location.
1. Find Healthy Alternative Ingredients for The Unhealthy Ones
You need to have an in-depth understanding of nutrition so that you can better choose which foods to consume, which are not healthy for you, and which will aid or hinder your goals regardless of their nutritional facts.
For example, if you are a fan of cheese, such as cheddar cheese, you need to look for low-fat alternatives if you need to limit your fat intake. Feta cheese is one good example. Also, if you want to eat pancakes in the morning, then pick whole flour or millet flour instead of white flour.
Also, you might want to mash a banana and add it, which will work as a binding ingredient as well as a sweetening agent. That way, you wouldn't have to go for refined sugar or baking soda.
Look at what kind of oils you cook your food in; for example, canola oil should be replaced with olive oil. So, you might want to reconsider your food choices that way.
Another thing is to look for nutritionally rich foods in your favorite foods. For example, if you like pizza, create a low-calorie version by making your dough with flour and greek yogurt.
Use low-fat or non-fat mozzarella and high-quality pepperoni. For more details check out this video. Try to add as much variety as you can so you really get the best of the favorite food that you are consuming. It will enable you to enjoy your food as well as improve your overall status of health, making you lose weight in a healthier and more sustainable way.
2. Enjoy in Moderation
The discipline that is required to lose weight does incorporate a lot of self-control. However, you also need to enjoy your favorite foods with some flexibility as well.
For example, you might want to understand that if a thought of your favorite food is bothering you to an extent, and you have cravings and anxiety due to it, then it is alright to consume that food sometimes.
But rather than enjoying their favorite guilty pleasure and moving forward with their goals, individuals tend to give up their diet plans completely over a simple indulgence. Instead, enjoy your favorite food and get right back on track. Otherwise, months of progress with food control will go down the drain.
Instead of starving yourself, it is important you understand that it is alright to consume some amount of your favorite food in moderation. For example, if you are a diabetic, it is alright to consume a dessert once or twice a week if the serving size is little.
Also, you need to pair it up with a healthy protein or fat, such as nuts and seeds, which will stop your glucose levels from surging all the way. You need to understand how many calories are there in a serving size so you can easily realize the amount of the food that you are taking.
This comes of special help when you are trying to get rid of excess fat from your body. As you attain the best mindset about having moderation in food, then you are going to get the best results from it. A fitness challenge should not be strict enough to never allow you a specific food, especially if you have a soft corner for it.
Otherwise, you are dealing with a red flag, so you need to be careful.
3. Smaller Portion with Higher Volume Side (Veggies)
If you choose to eat a meal, do make sure you have a starch side which is rich in healthy fiber. Fruits and vegetables make the perfect volume side for a small portion. It is because they are rich in fiber, which helps you in a number of ways.
You feel satisfied for hours which means you don't get to have that kind of cravings and feeling that you are still hungry. Also, you don't overindulge yourself in the main dish, which contains some fats and proteins in it. Instead, you learn to take things under check and make sure you don't overeat.
The fiber present in plant-based foods will keep you full for hours, so it will be like you had a nutritious and filling meal instead of getting your blood glucose levels low.
Follow @fitnello.nutrition on Instagram for healthy meal prep ideas, including favorite desserts such as pancakes, cookies, and more!
What's more, the dietary fiber from the vegetables will help in eliminating all LDL cholesterol, which is the bad cholesterol, from your body. It will enable you to have a more idealistic approach towards food as your savior against not only weight gain but also anything harmful that may come.
So, it is better to look at the whole picture, and instead of seeing food as your enemy, use food in such a way that it serves as your friend, helping you move toward your fitness goals. You may want to get a free body scan at Fitnello Fitness Studio, which can help you make better decisions about food choices.
4. Be Active
One important reason that food may quickly turn into your foe is that you don't do anything to take out the calories that you consumed, especially when you spend an entire day sedentary. What happens is that the calories you are consuming through food get stored in your system. The glucose which is metabolized gets converted into fat, and you get out of shape. This is the reason why dietitians recommend the "calorie in, calorie out" statement to their weight loss clients. You really need to make sure that the calories you consume are getting out of your body in the form of physical activity.
Experts recommend doing 60 minutes of moderate activity a day is a great start for keeping up with this caloric balance. However, you may need to join a gym or find a way to strength train at home. Most people do well in group fitness classes where they are expected to move with the group and get the excess fat melted out from their body.
The friendly environment enables the people, and it also improves the overall dimension of motivation for the candidates who are engaged in those activities. Talk to the former clients and learn about what they have to say about the classes they took. It will give you a better insight into the environment that is in there so you can make a better decision.
Ultimately, the final decision is yours, and you have to decide what works best for you.
Conclusion: Enjoy Food and Lose Weight
As you can see now, your food can become your greatest weapon against fat gain if you decide to use it for your benefit. Learn about food from valuable resources such as dietitians, group trainers, and even personal trainers who are experienced and certified. It will give you more insight into how you can build a relationship with the food you consume and how you can use it to your advantage to get the body you want.