Like most people who have experienced weight gain over the prior year, or years, you might have made a solemn new years resolution to lose those stubborn pounds this year for sure. Your intentions were certainly good, but have you been able to remain true to your diet?
Have you quit your diet already?
If you have already failed, do you have any idea why you have failed so soon after beginning your new and improved diet over last years new and improved diet which you also failed?
If you have never visited David’s Way to Health and Fitness, you may be unaware that most diet programs are designed to fail. For this reason, we teach our readers and followers that successful weight loss only comes when there is a complete and total lifestyle change in regards to nutrition and how we view and use food in our lives.
You must treat your weight loss journey holistically, instead of only concentrating on dropping the number on the scale!
Popular diets, will cause you to lose some weight, sometimes even a lot of it. However, without a change of lifestyle, weight gain will once again occur and your body will be right back where it was before you had started your diet. Often times, your body fat percentage will be even higher than it had before. This is a possibility even if you do not regain all of the weight which you had taken off through your diet.
Popular diets fail you because there is much more to weight loss, and preventing weight gain, than just cutting calories, fats and carbohydrates. Popular diets fail simply because they do not address the underlying issue of addiction which is the root cause of weight gain and repeated failures at weight loss.
Food addiction is not in the least bit different than any other addiction you might have experienced in life. Addiction to unhealthy, sugar and preservative laden foods that are also often mixed with unhealthy fats will cause you to get the same exact cravings as any other addict on the street looking for a dope fix. This food addiction will cause us to be stressed, and will drive us out of our minds with cravings for certain foods which do not include healthy choices. If you have ever experienced those cravings, you already know this to be true.
The discomfort we feel when the cravings set in is actually a withdrawal symptom, which can set in even after a short amount of time since you had last eaten. These withdrawal symptoms from junk foods can be so intense that we often find ourselves unable to reduce portion sizes, to eat less often, and to avoid the foods which are causing those intense cravings that we just seem to not be able to escape from.
Weight gain and toxic hunger.
The Standard American Diet (SAD) is one of the sorriest nutritional disaster that has ever struck. It is loaded down with sugar-laden baked goods, soft drinks, and other foods that stimulate the production of free radicals and other toxins within our bodies. After we have eaten foods from the SAD, our bodies will begin a detoxification process in order to break down and then remove the toxins we have just consumed.
Have you ever found it ignorant when people will consume large quantities of crap food choices while hollering about how they will never consume GMO foods?
That last sentence was just a random thought… But think about it.
Detox is painful!
Yes, detox from poor quality junk foods is painfully hard, but it is not as painful as the associated health problems that will arise on top of more weight gain in the future.
And no, you do not need, nor should you try to detox through anything other than wholesome and healthy foods. Just skip those detox teas, pills, and diets!
People who thrive on junk foods invariably experience both physical and emotional discomfort in between meals. These conditions usually consist of anxiety, irritability, and fatigue in between meals. And of course, being as most people of today cannot stand to be uncomfortable for any amount of time, they resort to eating in order to stop their discomfort between meals. It is common that most people cannot even explain why they eat all of the time, nor do they understand the discomfort that they are experiencing between their feedings.
Because people often confuse the sensations of withdrawal with the sensation of hunger, they do not understand that the resulting toxic hunger is because of their toxin producing diet.
Detoxing takes some time to get through!
You can stop weight gain from sugar laden, and unhealthy foods in it’s tracks. No, it is not impossible for anyone to do this, but the first couple of weeks while you are working at stopping your addiction are going to be uncomfortable. You just have to deal with that if you are serious about losing weight and improving your health. After the first two weeks of stopping sugar and junk foods, life will begin getting easier with each passing day. But if you give in to your cravings, you will only be starting all over again when you come back to your senses.
- Stop eating foods that include added sugars and your foods of convenience that are also full of sugar, unhealthy fats, preservatives, and almost always too high in sodium.
- High anti-oxidant foods such as beans, fresh vegetables, nuts, seeds, and berries need to be incorporated into your diet. These foods make it easier for your liver to eliminate metabolites that are produced during digestion and which intensify your discomfort in between meals.
- Learn to recognize true hunger! Most people who suffer from weight gain complain that they always feel hunger. No, this is not unique to you, and yes, this problem is a result of the foods that you eat, and is not from anything else. This discomfort is the result of detoxification, which includes symptoms such as a growling stomach and irritability. When we eat because of these feelings, we are eating to make ourselves feel better rather eating to quell true hunger.
- If you find yourself craving certain foods, you are not truly hungry.
- If you find yourself hungry, but unwilling to prepare a healthy food choice, then you are not truly hungry.
- Please, eat a higher volume of nutritious foods at each meal instead of cutting back to a ridiculously low amount of calories in order to lose weight. Small amounts of food often result in weight gain because you can become ravenous between meals. The feelings of being satiated is largely controlled by stomach “stretch receptors”.
- Eating a good amount of nutritious, lower calories foods will activate these receptors that turns off your hunger. This does not occur from junk foods as fully as when we consume healthy foods. To clarify this point, you will feel more satiated for a longer time after eating healthy foods. If you find yourself gorging on high calorie, low nutrition snacks, those receptors that quell your hunger are never truly activated.
Socialize More!
Yes, socialize more, but do not make the center of your socialization revolve around eating. Most of us who have been, or are overweight use food for emotional comfort just the same as other addicts who use drugs or alcohol. What eating does is, it temporarily increases dopamine which makes us feel better for a short amount of time.
If your circle of friends are not interested in improving their health, and do not care about weight gain or weight loss, you need to find new friends whose social lives revolve around activities that do not include food. Something as simple as a brisk walk with a friend can also release dopamine just the same as the release from foods.
Weight Gain Leads to Poor Mental and Physical Health
People who can maintain a healthy body fat percentage, and who are active in activities that do not revolve around food are almost always happier, have a higher self-esteem, and are more motivated to take care of themselves by taking care of their health. It really does not matter what the “Fat Acceptance” crowd says, being overweight is not healthy, nor is it anything that can bring true joy into your life. This is a fact, and facts do not care about feelings…