Losing weight at a steady pace requires that you eat the correct amount of calories of the right foods at the right times. About 90% of dieters think they're eating perfect and blame their metabolism or genetics for their inability to lose weight. In reality all you need to do is tweak your diet here and there and those pounds will start to come off instantly. The only challenge is you have to do it. Read on to find out which one of the diet mistakes you're making and how to fix it.
You Eat Mostly Beige & Yellow Carbs
Are you one of the many who's carb intake consists of potatos, corn, yellow squash, wheat bread, bagels, crackers, wheat wraps or pita bread, banans, cereal, pasta, and rice. These foods are healthy but should be reduced drastically when you're trying to lose weight. Two servings a day is all you need, so if you choose to eat cereal and a banana for breakfast you're done eating these types of carbs for the day. One serving is the equivalent of 1/2 a bagel, 1/2 a cup of pasta or rice, 1/2 pita, 1 small baked potato, 1 slice of bread. Stick to two servings a day of these types of carbs and you'll start losing in no time. Measure it if you have to and don't forget that fast food sandwiches like a subway club, chicken mcgrill, or arby's market fresh count as two servings.
You Don't Plan Meals
You Skip breakfast and snack on a stale pastry or hit the vending machine midmorning. You eat an o.k. breakfast but don't pack a lunch and gorge on fast food. You have no groceries at home so you get take out or pizza, again. Sound familiar? Lack of planning results in poor food choices and overeating by around 500 calories. All it takes to get organized is one weekly grocery trip and about 10-15 minutes before bedtime each night. Make a big dinner and pack leftovers in a small container for lunch the next day. Add two pieces of fruit, some lowfat string cheese, whole grain crackers, 6 oz o.j. mixed with 8 oz. vanilla protein powder in a ready to mix container and you have 3-4 healthy mini meals. If you're often rushed in the morning plan your metabolism boosting breakfast the night before as well. Mix up cottage cheese and lowfat pineapple yogurt, slice up an apple and smear with peanut butter, dice up one hardboiled egg and two hardboiled egg whites into 1/2 a whole wheat pita. Pack any of these into a container so you can eat on your way to work. These few minutes of preparation will pay off when you finally see those pounds melting away.
You Drink & Smoke Regularly
According to Jay Williams, Ph.D. and author of The 24 Hour Turnaround, alcohol is a toxin that is absorbed directly into the bloodstream and the small intestine. It then passes to the liver where the liver spends all it's time and effort for the next 48 hours metabolizing it. In other words everthing else that is eaten in those 48 hours will most likely be stored as fat because the liver is too busy metabolizing the alcohol you drank. Alcohol also disrupts sleep and when you don't get enough of that your metabolism is affected further. Alcohol causes dehydration and drinking 24 hours prior to working out decrease endurance and increases the likelihood of muscle cramps. In addition alcohol packs 7 calories per gram, almost as much as fat at 9 calories per gram. To make matters worst alcohol causes you to let down your guard resulting in overeating by up to 200 calories. If you're serious about losing the weight DON'T DRINK until you've reached your goal weight and then only do so occasionally until you've maintained this weight for over a year.
Are you smoking to curb appetite? Although this may seem to help it's actually interfering with your body's ability to burn as many calories as possible in two ways. Anytime you smoke a cigarette you are more likely to skip meals which slows down your metabolism to conserve energy. Each time you light up you decrease lung capacity and damage cells causing shortness of breath and decreased endurance. You can't workout as hard when you're struggling to breath. Want to look great? Then cut back slowly until you no longer need to smoke. The more you exercise the easier this will be since exercise produces a lot of the feel good endorphins that smokers seek in the first place.
You Have Bites of Other People's Food
Having the crusts from your toddler's peanut butter sandwich, a small handful of your co-workers m&m's, a few sips of coke, and a bite or two of your hubby's ice cream may seem harmless but these calories add up big time. Be careful about these seemingly small daily cheats. If you have to indulge set a limit that's within your daily calories and try to stick to it. The smarter thing to do is to figure out how to banish junk food cravings altogether until you've lost the weight.
You Don't Track Calories
One way to monitor whether you're nibbling too much or just plain overeating is to track calories. Write down every single thing that goes into your mouth for an entire week. You'll be surprised at how many more calories you consume. Once you write it down review it and look for patterns. Maybe you tend to overeat at a certain time of day when you're tired or bored. Perhaps it's being around people or places that makes you overconsume calories. Once you find your downfall devise a plan to deal with your overeating triggers.
Recommended Reading: Katherine Tallmadge, MA, RD, one of the country's leading nutritionists, has compiled 154 easy tips, substitutions, mental tricks, strategies, and inspirations that have helped her clients shed from 10 to 50 pounds a year-effortlessly and without feeling deprived.
Diet Simple
