Healthy Eating for Healthy Weight Loss

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Healthy eating is not as difficult or as restrictive as most people think. In fact, if you think it means strict deprivation you are not doing it correctly! If you want to lose weight or just decrease your chances of developing diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and all of the other health conditions linked to obesity, then learning to think more sensibly about food is important.

The most important secret you will ever discover is that it all starts in the head. If you put too many restrictions on your diet or tell yourself that you can never eat foods that you love again, then you are going to fail. The first rule is never to do that to yourself!

Consider the following secrets to help you form a more realistic way of thinking about a healthy diet.

Attitude: This has to be the first secret revealed because it is the most important. How you mentally approach your new lifestyle is going to determine whether you really adopt a healthy eating pattern or fall quickly back into the unhealthy habits.

Eating healthy is a matter of stringing together days, weeks, and months of good choices regarding food. It is not about never again eating a slice of cake or enjoying your mother’s sugar cookies at Christmas. This is not a diet. You are not going to deprive yourself of everything you love. You are just making better choices for your body 90% of the time.

Proper Carbs: This is the only secret you need to know that is related to an actual food group. You could read books on how to create a perfectly balanced diet and all the specific nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that your body needs and the exact amount to consume every day. But who has time to do that?

If you get your carbs in control you will get your diet as a whole in control. It’s not about eliminating or reducing them, but eating the healthier varieties.

All of these things are carbohydrates: cake, cookies, refined pasta, whole grain bread, fresh fruit, and vegetables.

Look at the foods you normally eat and find ways to replace specific items with healthier options. For example, you may go for fresh fruit over cookies and cakes. Go for whole grain breads and pasta instead of refined varieties. Simple put: make substitutions!

The more you can weed out the refined and sugary carbs the healthier you are going to be. Remember, it’s not about carb elimination but carb control.

Use the Glycemic Index to help make better carb choices. (See the Glycemic Index category for more information.)

Snacking: This is maybe the most surprising secret for some people. You have to eat to be healthy and that means healthy snacking. Eating more often keeps your blood sugar stable and your metabolism higher throughout the day. The trick is to finding sensible snacks that give your body energy rather than zapping it.

Do your best to eat something every 3-4 hours, even if it is just fresh fruit or a handful of nuts. Consider those healthy carbs as light snacks.

Healthy eating is about a well rounded life. Think moderation rather than deprivation. You should find yourself consuming lean meats and a variety of healthy carbs on a daily basis and then indulging in your favorite unhealthy foods when the time is right.

Instead of piling on those favorite foods day after day, use them in moderation and savor every single bite.