1. EAT BREAKFAST!
When you eat first thing, you are able to focus on your work and your healthy goals. You need to begin fueling early if you’re going to work out later in the day. You can’t wait until right before you exercise and just grab a “quick snack”. Nutrients need to have some time to metabolize so that they are available when you need them. When you’re satiated and energetic, you are more inspired to pursue excellence and give your workout your best effort.
If you don’t eat, at some point in the day you will be famished and start grabbing whatever sounds good in large amounts. That’s usually high-carb, low nutrition junk food. You can eat an entire day’s worth of calories in a few minutes. Just one quick detour through the drive-thru window can burn all of your calorie allowance plus more. One milkshake can easily cost you well over a thousand calories. Add the rest of what’s in the the sack and you are in serious nutritional trouble. Eat at home! If you think you don’t have time to cook, grab an apple, cheese sticks and a bottled 0 sugar protein shake.
2. COOK!
While it is possible to stay within your caloric allowance eating out, it’s not very likely that you will. Most of our favorite restaurant offerings are calorie laden and nutritionally poor. Buy meat, fish, poultry and eggs. Stock up on vegetables and even try something new. Fresh fruits eaten whole are also a nutritional bonus, but don’t juice them or puree them. They don’t keep you satisfied when you do that. You get too much fruit sugar in your bloodstream too fast, and the corresponding insulin dump will make you ravenous! Eat the fruit with the fiber and it will satisfy a sweet craving and help you stay satisfied. An apple is a wonderful treat that staves off hunger well. Baked apples cooked in the microwave or conventional oven with a 0-calorie sweetener and cinnamon is a dessert that will satisfy. If you have plenty of fiber from fruits and vegetables, along with a robust serving of protein, the fiber and protein will bind together and stay in your stomach longer than either alone.
If you don’t think you know how to cook, because it’s almost a lost art, peruse our recipes and find something that sounds good and just start cooking! You can easily find instructional videos on YouTube. Non-stick pots and pans make learning to cook easier than ever. Once you get some confidence, you can decide if you want to continue using nonstick cookware. There are some reports that it’s not the healthiest choice but it’s healthier than eating at the drive-through window every time! Take your time when you begin learning and keep it SIMPLE! Save the complicated recipes for later. Before long you’ll be whipping up entire meals in minutes, saving yourself tons of cash and calories! David once prepared an entire meal of steak, green beans and canned pinto beans from start to finish in 12 minutes, and the steak was frozen! Take shortcuts and use convenient foods like the canned pintos. Just eat healthy, whole foods and count your calories. Read labels and avoid added sugars.
3. PURGE YOUR “FRIENDS” LIST!
Nowhere is the saying “If you’re not for me, you’re against me!” truer than in weight management. Women are notorious for sabotaging each other whenever one starts losing weight. I have had two different women tell me that they did not like me being smaller than them. One was proficient at sabotage, plying me with homemade cheesecake, the real kind that takes 8 hours to cook. After befriending her for 6 months, I had gained 40 pounds! At some point, I regained my senses and got back on a healthy eating program and just as expected, that “friendship” was over pretty quickly. THOSE PEOPLE ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS. Accept the truth of that statement now and get them out of your life. I could list endless examples of this behavior. “Misery loves company”. Do you want to be miserable? If not, get these selfish, user personalities out of your life now. Men have been known to exhibit similar behavior, just not as openly. Men, if you’re losing weight and a guy insists that you go for beer and wings with him, he’s not your friend. Accept it and live or ignore it and let him ruin your life. The choice is yours. This personality will also sabotage relationships, maybe even steal your girl, so drop him. It’s easier than prison time, right?
4. TOSS THE JUNK!
If you have regular ice cream, chips, cookies, cake or whatever your binge, trigger food is in your house, throw it away now! Do not consider how much it cost. I guarantee you that it cost less than medical copays and deductibles and prescription medication. Don’t lie and say that it’s for the kids or your partner or whatever. The kids don’t need it and your partner should value your health more than Oreos. If your partner wants junk, then he /she can buy it and store it where you don’t have to look at it. Although it seems radical, I dumped a partner of 30 years that consistently fought against my health initiatives and always wanted junk in the house. Within 15 minutes of announcing that I was losing weight one time, he decided to buy pizza. He never bought pizza. Out of pure spite, I got to my goal weight and then went on to remove over 200 more pounds of fat from my life, him. I have never looked back. This person always pulled against me. Being healthy is much easier now. There are no trigger foods in my house whatsoever.
5. STOCK UP ON THE GOOD STUFF!
WOW! Are groceries expensive or what?!? Although it seems like a ton of money at checkout, investing in good food at the grocery store is so much cheaper than eating out. You can have three healthy meals and snacks every day for less than you can eat two meals out. DON’T BUY TRASH FOOD JUST BECAUSE IT’S CHEAP! The boxed macaroni and cheese is not cheap if it contributes to bad health and I promise you, it will. Refined pasta breaks down into a simple sugar fast in your bloodstream. Then you get an insulin dump, hunger and more eating. Simple carbs like refined pasta contribute to ill health. They have very little nutritional value and are high in calories. Spend your calories wisely on whole foods that fill you up, help to maintain a stable blood sugar and provide dense nutrition with healthy fiber. Carbs are not the enemy, simple carbs are. White pasta is junk but a potato is a good whole healthy food. Buy the best food that you can afford and reap the healthy benefits of less body fat, better blood chemistry and energy to work out!
6. CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK OF FOOD!
Most of my life I thought of food as recreation! When you stop and think about it, our society encourages that way of thinking. How many commercials do you see in an evening that portray any number of restaurants as Nirvana? Their ads make it look as if you bring a half dozen people to their place and order enough salt, sugar and alcohol, your life will be good. The truth is, about 30 minutes might be good. Whenever you pay your tab and start home, you begin to lament the money spent. By the time you get home, you’re wondering how you can “get rid of all this water weight” and then you decide that you will just start your “diet” tomorrow. If you begin to think of food as the way to fuel your workouts and create the healthy body that you want, you will find it much easier to make wise decisions.
7. FIND HEALTHY REPLACEMENTS FOR HIGH CALORIE FAVORITES!
If you cannot bear to face life without a specific high-calorie food, find a healthier food that will satisfy that craving. We have recipes and ideas for anything that you might want. Make a comment on this article and we can help you find whatever you need to fill that void in your life!
8. CHANGE HABITS THAT ARE LINKED TO OVEREATING!
I once had a doctor whose staff all went to lunch together every day. They were later and later getting back from lunch over the course of a year or so. Eventually, it became obvious that they were partying their way through lunch with tons of Mexican food and Margaritas! They were drunk when they returned to work and in that time period they all gained at least 40 pounds. When the doctor realized what was going on, he fired them all. Many people have specific danger zones for overeating. It may be lunch with the girls or TV at night with your spouse. Whatever it is, change it. If you can’t imagine lunch without overdoing it, stop eating out. If TV time is your downfall, plan ahead with healthy snacks or start working out during that time. YOU CANNOT KEEP DOING THE SAME THINGS AND EXPECT A DIFFERENT OUTCOME!
9. GET A CHECKUP!
Nothing will motivate you as much as a good doctor looking you in the eyes and telling you exactly where you stand with your health. Bloodwork does not lie. If your doctor does not address your weight and you know that you weigh too much, ask the question, “Do I need to lose weight?” I dare you.
10. CELEBRATE EVERY MILESTONE!
Every time that you hit a goal that is significant to you, reward yourself with a healthy gift! It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. You can buy a special cut of meat that you don’t usually buy, workout clothes, gym equipment or a gym membership. Plan a vacation. Do something that you want to do that is health related and contributes to your new healthy lifestyle!
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Sugar Free Praline Brownies – David’s Way to Health and Fitness (davidsway.blog)