To catch up:
Here it is, the final post in my series! Finally, phew! In going through these posts, I had the thought that this doesn’t sound much like how to lose weight at all. Instead it sounds like instructions on transitioning to a real food diet. Why is that?
Because they are the same thing!
Here’s the amazing thing about eating food that is real. Because you are filling up on nutrition, the automatic side effect is weight loss. Cravings reduce because your brain stops sending out starvation signals to try to get more nutrition. Real food also is more filling, so it takes less food to feel satisfied, and you feel full for longer. Sounds pretty great, right?
Also, real food just plain tastes better. When I think of “diet” food, I think of those gross frozen meals that I used to eat, or I think of rice cakes or other bland, boring food that is anything but satisfying. For weight loss to be complete and lasting, it has to be a complete lifestyle choice that you can maintain. When you are cooking real food from scratch (once you have gained a few cooking skills, of course), the food tastes so much better than prepackaged, artificial crap. Better tasting food equals more satisfaction after eating, which means less temptation to snack on junk or eat mindlessly later.
All these things combined with portion control and compensation add up to weight loss that you don’t even have to think about. Your body has the amazing capacity to heal itself and return to it’s most healthy state. It wants to do it, but without the proper tools (good nutrition and exercise) it just can’t. That would be like trying to build a house without nails, it just plain doesn’t work. But once you give your body the right tools, the weight just falls right off. Falls right off!
So start off small, do what you can, and learn to enjoy your new foods and way of eating. Little by little you will improve your weight and your health.
What challenges do you have in switching to a Real Food diet?