Eating What You Love

Trying to lose and maintain weight is hard. If it was easy, the majority of people would not be obese, and it would be rare for someone to be overweight. As most of us know, it actually takes a lot of control and will power to have a healthy weight. Furthermore, actually feeling like you have eaten enough can be tough if you are losing weight. Finding the right balance and diet for you are key to a long and healthy life.

If you find yourself bouncing up and down between weight values, you’re with the majority of people that start a diet. While eating healthy for a couple of weeks can be done, it’s often much harder to maintain over a long period of time. If you’re not constantly bouncing around between diets, then there’s a good chance you know someone that does. They lose a bunch of weight only to gain it back again.

Far too often, people go on a diet that they simply won’t be able to maintain. Eat only vegetables, no carbs, and a little bit of protein. That may lead to a loss in weight over a short period of time, but it’s going to be nearly impossible to keep carbs out of your diet for a really long time. Some people can do it, but the majority of people are going to rebound and start eating carbs again.

You should avoid diets that go to extremes in areas that you actually like to eat. While you need to cut out as much of that refined sugar as you can from your diet, you’ll still desire to have it. Removing things like carbs and other macronutrients may sound like it really does the trick, but it’s also hard to maintain. You can certainly give it a try, but if you can’t stick to it then you need to find something you can.

Find a diet that strikes a balance between healthy and allowing you to eat the things you love. Sure, you can’t have candy every day in excess in most diets, but finding a diet that allows you to have the flexibility to eat candy now and again is important (assuming you like candy). Your diet should be a way of life, not just a temporary transition period. If you can’t maintain it, then you should keep looking for something else.

A diet that lets you eat things you enjoy at moderation is a diet you can stick to for life. Find foods that you enjoy, and find ways to make them healthier. Do you want to have guacamole with your dinner? Replace your rice with cauliflower rice. Want to have pizza? Use a healthier crust and make your own pizza at home. Sure, reward yourself with the real thing every once and awhile as well.

You’re running a race that you must run your entire life - you want to be the tortoise, not the hare in your weight management journey. That means that you want to find something that you actually like and can do consistently for your life. It’s not surprising that so many people bounce up and down in weight when they’re constantly starting and stopping during the journey. Keep at your pace and stick with what works for you.

To maintain a healthy weight, you must find a diet you enjoy and can do for life. Eating things you enjoy will make that journey much easier, and make it so that you can stick to it.