Like most people, you may have vowed to start your diet after the holiday, summer, winter, Festivus, or whatever season ends, and that no matter what, you’re going to stick to this diet and start cooking yourself healthy meals at home. While this is a great promise to make the question remains, will you stick to this decision in a week, two weeks, or even a month or two from now? If you've tried dieting after the holidays in previous years, you probably know yourself and know that it isn’t easy, but why is that? According to dieticians and nutritionists, this is because you’re probably making 10 mistakes that are preventing you from being able to stick to your diet over time. Continue reading to find out what they are and how you can prevent them!
One of the biggest mistakes you may make while dieting is to ban whole groups of food, saying for example "I don’t eat anything with carbs" or "I avoid anything that contains fat." If you limit yourself so much, not only will it be harder for you to stick to your diet, but also avoid the different foods you need to consume and limit yourself to individual foods that don’t necessarily benefit your body on their own.
Instead, it is recommended that you maintain correct proportions and consume anything that is harmful to your diet in moderation. With regard to different food groups, you should consume 140-180 grams of meat daily, 1.5-2 cups fruit, 2.5-3 cups vegetables (preferably green leafy vegetables), 170-225 grams of cereals, 3 cups low-fat dairy products and 5-6 teaspoons of oil.
If you want and need to shed a lot of weight, there is no problem in making it a goal, however, you should know that it can deter you over time, especially in the early stages, and make you give up pretty quickly. It is best to set small goals that are easy to achieve in the short term and which will help eventually reach one big goal. For example, if you want to lose 10 pounds, try to set the goal of losing 1-2 pounds every month for 5-10 months. It's easier to stick to a diet this way, and that goal is much more realistic.
The first step in a diet is to understand that it is a long process that doesn’t end quickly. However, many look for quick fixes and sometimes turn to pills or “supplements” to help them achieve their goal quickly. Not only does thinking about such solutions indicate that you won’t be able to persist for a long time on your diet, but these solutions may also even be completely unhealthy for you, so you will not get the health benefits of your diet and you may even harm your body. Most often, you will not see results in the first week or two of your diet, but don’t let it get you out and make you give up.
Sometimes we eat foods that make us feel bad afterward, not emotionally, but physically. For example, fried foods may cause you not only to gain weight, but also may cause you to experience various digestive problems, so remind yourself that reducing its consumption will not only help you lose weight but will also feel better. Try to pay attention to the way you feel after you eat fattening foods and after eating fruits, vegetables or grains, and over time you will see that a healthier diet is beneficial not only for your diet but also for your physical well-being.
Some of you may set different rules for yourself, such as not eating after 8pm, not consuming sugar at all, and the like. When you break these rules, and it is likely to happen over a year-long diet, you are only going to feel disappointed with yourself and be tempted to abandon the whole diet. Try not to concentrate on the rules and focus instead on simply eating healthy foods every day. Also, don’t jump ship on your dieting if you’ve made a mistake, simply choose not to repeat this mistake later on. If rules do help keep you disciplined, instead of starting with a lot of tough rules, try to make 1-2 changes every two weeks in your diet and habits. Therefore, you can add rules slowly without putting to much pressure on yourself, and they will no longer feel like rules, rather they will feel like a new way of life you’re creating for yourself.
Yogurt can be especially helpful in dieting; however, this statement is correct only if your consuming natural yogurt with no added sugars or “fruits,” even if its labeled “diet.” It's always better to have the simplest and most natural yogurt, and if you want it to be a little sweeter, sweeten it by adding fresh, maple syrup, or honey.
If you are starting a diet, you probably don’t want to give up comfort foods, and for that, you'll look for diet recipes that require a lot of effort for quality results. However, if you are not used to working in the kitchen, you may be over-investing in your cooking which will just cause you to give up. You should know that even a simple dish like vegetable pasta can be a warm and comforting, while still being easy. Click here to try 7 guilt-free pasta recipes today.
Skipping meals can make you quit your diet much quicker than you think. If you skip meals, you will only feel hungrier, which will make you succumb to that hunger with solutions that are available to you in the place and time you are in. In addition, skipping meals makes your brain work at half-power throughout the day, so eat at least 3 times a day without giving up breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
If you drink diet drinks or even healthy shakes, you should consider the calories they contain. Try to avoid drinking sweet drinks altogether, even if they are diet drinks since all they do is add empty calories to your body without actually satisfying you.
Weight loss doesn’t come by just changing up your diet, but you must also exercise to help you burn calories without storing body fat. Physical training can help you reduce 500-750 calories every day if you do it 3-5 times a week for 30-60 minutes at a time. Only when you incorporate exercise into your diet can you begin to see real results.
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