Strategies for better eating
Diet is crucially important to your success in losing weight permanently. And however complicated it might seem to really eat well, it’s quite simple. You can say it in one simple sentence: To lose weight permanently, stay away from processed foods loaded with flour and sugar, eat plenty of vegetables and fruits, have protein and some good fat in every meal you eat.
It is as simple as that. But putting it into a practice is not that simple, especially after a long period of time we spend developing a bad eating habits. And they will not be broken that easily. Again we talk here about habits. Yes, they are the cause of everything we are today. And some of them have been ingrained in us for very long time. So to brake them, we will need some time. And hopefully you recognized this principle and are already modifying your permanent weight loss habits.
I will remind you here again to just work on one habit for 30 days at the time. Make sure you stick to that one the whole 30 days. Than pick another one.
Bust your fridge and cupboards
We talked about this before. Take a large plastic bag and start putting all the candy bars, sodas, juices, breads, bagels, cookies, frozen meals, pizzas, chocolates, buns and everything that is made from flour and that has added sugar in it. Put it in the bag and throw it away! Don’t donate it! Throw it away! Nobody wants to eat this garbage! And if somebody really wants to, don’t give it to them anyway. You will do them a favor of not polluting their environment with more bad stuff in their life.
Your shopping list
Now, when your cupboards are empty and ready to be filled with good, weight loss supporting stuff, go shopping.
Buy these ingredients:
Nuts – almonds, walnuts
Fresh Eggs
Organic unsalted almond butter
Organic unsalted peanut butter
Seasonal fruit – apples, pears, peaches, oranges, plums, strawberries, raspberries and many other kinds
Avocados
Greens – mustard greens, kale, turnip leafs, spinach, even frozen is fine
Whole organic chicken
Lean ground turkey
First cold pressed virgin olive oil
Firm organic tofu
Green tea
Whole white yogurt
Whole milk
Can of sardines in spring water
Can of wild salmon
Can of lightly smoked herring in canola oil
100% dark chocolate
Whole cottage cheese
You can even hire me, since I am an official fridge buster. The title I gave myself about a year ago. I personally strongly believe that what we eat makes a huge impact on every aspect of our life’s. It is very important to consider every little piece of food we put into our mouth.
Always ask yourself these questions before you eat something. Can you find it in the nature as it is? And that’s the most important question. Of course you can cook it boil it or grill it. Important is, that what you are about to put into the pot is something you can find in nature like it is.
Some additional questions to ask are: Is there any sugar added it what i am about to eat? Is it made from flour? Is it made to last long on the shelf? If the answer to these questions is yes, you should really consider not eating it.
Our diet not only affects our weight, although that’s the number one reason we don’t like it is causing, it’s also affecting our brain, heart, all the vital organs and reproductive organs. Yes, I meant that, your sex life suffers as well. So improving it will not only help you loose weight and keep it off for ever, it will improve every aspect of your body. And the result will be leaner, healthier, better performing you.
Add fat to your diet
No, I am not crazy. And yes, you should increase amount of fat you consume daily. Why? Fat has a very important weight loss properties. First, by eating some of it with every meal will make you feel satisfied sooner and longer. That means you will not get hungry very soon and you will be feeling full longer. That kind of benefit of eating fat with every meal reduces your overall daily calorie consumption.
Second, when you eat fat with your meal, you automatically regulate sugar entry into your blood stream. Fat has an important role in our stomachs by slowing down the sugar, carbohydrate entry into your blood stream. With that it helps avoid the sugar and insulin spikes in your blood. And high insulin and sugar spikes are the worst enemy to the person trying to loose weight. Both of these factors, sugar spikes and high insulin levels in your blood stream are not only bad for your overall health, they make you fat too.
When there is too much sugar in your blood after eating something carbohydrate dense, lots of insulin is released to the blood stream. Of course your pancreas releases too much of it, because it doesn’t know how much is enough. Your pancreas didn’t have enough time to evolve to know this. It doesn’t recognize that bagel in your stomach, and all those empty carbohydrates from flour being released to your blood stream. So it panics and releases too much insulin. Now that insulin brakes those sugars into a glycogen, the human form of carbohydrate. And it tries to store it in your muscles and liver.
But, if these storages are already full, which they usually are especially with leading sedentary lifestyle, it stores it in your fat reserves. And that’s how you get fatter and fatter. So for this dangerous situation to avoid, I recommend two strategies. Eat only fruits and vegetables as your carbohydrates. And eat some fat with every meal to reduce the carbohydrate entry even further. This is the holly grail of fit lean body, sharp mind and lots of energy.
Saturated fat – the enemy?
Of course I am going to tell you, that the best sources of fat and the healthiest for you are those that are plant based. But don’t be surprised, if I am fine you eating and increasing saturated fat in your diet too. After all, all animal products like eggs, milk, cottage cheese and even virgin coconut milk contain saturated fat.
You heard that many, many times. Statements like: Don’t eat saturated fat. If you don’t want to get heart attack, stay away from saturated fat. Saturated fat clogs your arteries. Saturated fat is the worst enemy to your health.
Statements like this are very popular, but they are totally outdated. That is, why I never read men’s health or woman’s health magazines anymore. First, they are loaded with commercials. Second, the articles are short and don’t tell you much. And third, the message is so outdated and wrong. In every issue, they warn you to stay away from saturated fat! Yes, this message is very popular and quite frankly, everybody already knows it, but we read it again and again. We want assurance. It feels good to read something we already know. In this case, the dangers of saturated fat.
But, the message is wrong. Saturated fat is not bad for your health. It is not the reason your arteries are clogged, your blood pressure is high, you waist is huge and there is too much sugar flowing in your arteries making you pre diabetic. No, no, and no. Saturated fat is not the reason. The reason are the empty calories, you get from refined carbohydrates, sugar and yes too much beer and wine. To lose weight permanently, fat is important in our diet and it doesn’t really matter what kind is it as long as it is not trans fat. It needs to be naturally occurring fat.
Saturated fat is a very primal source of energy for us human beings. Saturated fat, is the reason we are still here, that we managed to survive. It’s the most primal source of energy for us.
Stop before you start binging on saturated fat
Now, I have a my own personal reason to tell you to cut on saturated fat in your diet. The reason are animals and the way humans treat them and the massive pollution, every farm raising cows and pigs produces. With eating too much of animal products, we let more animals to suffer and we are damaging our environment too.
No, that stake you had for dinner last night is not bad for your health. Like I said before, it’s loaded with protein and saturated fat. And those are our most natural sources of energy. But I am going to tell you to limit the consumption of meat to the minimum for the reasons I already described before.
I am personally trying not to eat any pork and beef. There are occasions, when I do, but I am trying to keep it on minimum. My choice of animal protein and fat is from poultry, fish, eggs and some dairy products. Yes, I know, it doesn’t make myself innocent in animal suffering (poultry suffers tremendously too and also fish) but I can’t resist it. I don’t eat these animal products more than 2 times per week, sometimes more, but that’s usually eggs and dairy products.
Meat is not bad for your health, but eat as little as you can or completely avoid it
Meat is totally natural for humans to consume. But I urge you to not over do it. Cut your meat consumption to minimum. Yes, there are many choices out there to replace the meat. And we will talk about them soon. For now, treat meat like a special treat. Don’t abuse it. Keep it on minimum. It can greatly benefit the animals and our environment and you too. It’s high in calories after all.
Best sources of fat for losing weight permanently:
Avocado
Olive oil
Nuts – all kinds of nuts, peanuts included Almond and peanut butters
Sunflower seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Canola oil
Coconut milk
Also, don’t be afraid of in moderation:
Organic butter
Lard
Vegetables and fruits as your only source of carbohydrates
Fruits and vegetables are naturally high in fiber and low in sugar. Yes, fruits taste sweet, but they actually are low in carbohydrates. And again, they come with fiber. Now we already talked about fats blood sugar entry slowing properties and the fiber has the same one. Fiber also naturally slows carbohydrate entry into the blood stream.
So now if you really think about it, you have 3 very powerful strategies to put your fat loss on autopilot. And if you can manage to utilize these strategies your body will become a fat burning machine.
So let me repeat them:
1st and 2nd – you will only eat fruits and vegetables as your only source of carbohydrates, which are naturally low in carbohydrates and on top of it, they contain a very beneficial fiber that comes with consuming them.
3rd – you add some fat with every meal you eat, further reducing the carbohydrate entry to the bloodstream.
Portion control is not that important
It is not important how much you eat, as long as you eat the way I described before. Binge if you like. Go for it. Just be very careful on what you binge. You can still overeat on regular basis and lose weight permanently. Quality maters much more than quantity. Happy healthy binging.
Best carbohydrate choices for losing weight permanently
Kale
Broccoli
Blueberries
Blackberries
Chickpeas
Celery
Cauliflower
Asparagus
Strawberries
Spinach
Lettuce – arugula, butter head, romaine
Mustard greens
Raspberries
Swiss chard
Kohlrabi
Peaches
Onions
Mushrooms
Leeks
Kidney beans – legumes are additional carbohydrates to fruits and vegetables for effective permanent weight loss
Grapes
Yellow squash
Cherries
Cucumbers
Tomatoes
Radishes
Green beans
Grapefruits
Fennel
Eggplant
Cabbage
Black beans
Bell peppers
Barley – together with steel cut oats, these grain choices can be introduced to your diet to support your permanent weight loss
Apples
Pears
Plums
Oranges
Okra
Oats – steel cut
Wine
Nectarines
Lentils
Kiwi
Brussels sprouts
Bok choy
Artichokes
Turnip greens
Apricot
These are carbohydrates rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals and are naturally low on sugar even though they taste sweet. They are great for our health and support our quest to lose weight permanently.
Best protein choices
Chicken breast or whole chicken
Turkey breast or ground turkey
Cod
Crab meat
Eggs
Lobster
Mackerel – fish
Milk – whole
Salmon
Sardines
Scallops
Sea bass – fish
Tuna
Cottage cheese – regular, not fat free
Shrimp
Soybean imitation meat products
Soy cheese
Tofu
Trout – fish
Yogurt – full fat
Soy milk
Soybeans boiled
How much protein should you eat at a meal? Just about what fits into your palm. That should be enough protein your body needs per day.
Simple recepies for losing weight permanently
Palm size of grilled salmon salmon, asparagus and 10 almonds
Palm size of chicken breast on top of the greens with 2 oz of olive oil
Mackerel in can with 2 apples
Sardines in olive oil can with 2 pears
Chicken thigh with steamed vegetables and olive oil
Ground turkey chilly with beans
Grilled tuna with steamed vegetables
Tofu, greens, spices and olive oil
Scrambled eggs with spinach and onion
Bean salad with mozzarella cheese
Apple with peanut butter
Pear with almond butter
Tofu over barley with olive oil and black pepper
And many many others. The simplest way to create a permanent weight loss meal is to take 1 choice of protein from the group of choices combine it with about the double size of it from one of the carbohydrate choices and add some of the fat choices to it. You will come up with a perfect permanent weight loss meal. If you can master this, you will be unstoppably on your way to lose weight permanently.
How to lose weight permanently:
>>How to lose weight permanently – part 1
>>How to lose weight permanently – part 2
>>How to lose weight permanently – part 3
>>How to lose weight permanently – part 4
>>How to lose weight permanently – part 5