Pure Food Life

How to successfully loose wieght and adopt a healthier lifesytle: the gradual approach

How many women do you know who have been claiming to be on a diet for the past ten years or so and have either only gained more weight, maintained the same weight, or have been frustratingly fluctuating between a certain range of pounds?  Chances are you know a few, and that you yourself may be one of them.  Usually these woman fail in their efforts to lose weight and keep it off because they are either inconsistent in their efforts or try to limit their intake so strictly that they cannot maintain their specified eating plan for long. 

In reality these women are setting themselves up for failure instead of success.  These women unfairly force their bodies into a program for which it was not designed or is in shape to maintain, so eventually their bodies rebel against their owner’s desires by demanding sustenance.  Problematically, when the body rebels against the stringent nature of a traditional diet it does not opt for the most nourishing foods; quite the opposite actually!   Think of how many times you have tried to give up a certain food or stimulant only to numbly binge on it later.  It is much like a smoker who tries to quit cold turkey and ends up getting so nervous that they have to run to the drug store in the middle of the night to get their long awaited fix!  This is because when the body is put under stress it will desire the most fattening, rich foods in hope that they will add to its fat reserves and sustain the body longer.  

                In order to finally lose the weight that you want and to maintain your desired weight easily and over a long period of time you must learn to accept your body and to compromise with it.  By compromise I mean that you must respect your body’s limitations and weaknesses and design a dietetic program/nutritional program that you can see yourself sticking to on a daily basis.  Weekends Included!  For instance if you want to cut out sweets but just cannot see yourself surviving a day without a piece of dark chocolate, don’t!  You can compromise with your body by cutting out the cakes and pastries that you would normally eat for breakfast but allow yourself the sweet indulgence of a piece of dark chocolate at night for desert.  Or if you are trying to become vegan but are still in a love affair with cheese than don’t pressure yourself to get rid of it entirely!  You can start by limiting your intake to a few times per week or to one time per day.     Taking gradual steps to improving your diet is key here. Before you know it you will find it easier and easier to stick to a healthier diet.

You will find it easier to keep a healthy diet over time because as you change your habits slowly over time you will see that you will no longer crave the same foods as you used to.  Hard to believe I know!  This is because the body craves what it is used to and the foods that dieters usually find themselves cheating with are laden with stimulants and addictive substances such as the caffeine and sugar in your average starbucks latte.  So all in all what I am saying to you is that you have to crawl before you can walk.  Changing your lifestyle is hard to do and it takes a lot of patience.  I promise you that if you acknowledge your body’s specific needs/wants as you approach a healthier lifestyle that the process will be much less painful.  Loving yourself along your journey towards health and weightless will make the end result ever greater and even more rewarding.