With all the different diets and 'fad' diets out there these days including 'questionable' success stories of the people who have been on them, as Personal Trainers we understand how you can find it confusing and difficult to know exactly what the right choices are to make when it comes to eating healthy.

 

Some fad diets can be downright dangerous and although they promise that you can achieve extreme weight loss, they actually aren't healthy at all as they are generally characterised by unusual food choices and not backed by good science.

 

Fad diets may provide short-term results, but rapid weight loss diets are very unsuccessful at achieving long-term weight loss.

 

If I had to sum it up into 4 words every time someone asked me, "So what do you eat?" It would be this, "I don't eat crap." You are smart enough to know what real food is.

 

Meat, fish, poultry, eggs, fruit, vegetables and nuts are all real food. Whereas highly processed foods, products with high levels of sugars and fats, fast food takeaways and basically anything that comes from a wrapper, bag or can that has a list of ingredients on it that have gone through a zillion stages to get to the point where you eat it, is probably not good for you.

 

Paying attention to what you eat, how much you eat, when you eat and when to stop, is really important for maintaining or losing weight.

 

How much food you eat for the most part, determines whether or not you lose weight, however the type of food you eat determines the overall composition.  If you decide to go low calorie, make sure you apportion a lot of your resources to protein and healthy fats to overcome the caloric reduction.

 

Watch the times when you eat and watch your portion sizes.

 

You should be eating every 2-3 hours to give your body the energy and fuel it needs to get through the day. If you go past the time when you should be eating, you end up being really hungry and then when you do eat, you tend to go way beyond the point of being comfortably full and you will have over-eaten. Eat slowly. Only eat until you are satisfied. And remember, you don't have to finish everything on the plate.

 

Portion sizes are based on the requirements of the average person:

 

• your palm determines your protein portions

• your fist determines your veggie portions

• your cupped hand determines your carb portions

• your thumb determines your fat portions.

 

Choose to eat healthy foods rather than 'extra foods' such as cake, biscuits, sweets and chips. Extra foods should only be consumed in small amounts and only occasionally (if not at all), because we don't need them.

 

Mental preparation.

 

Before you start though, you need to have mental willpower and be ready to change. What I mean by this is, if you are someone who wakes up every morning and the first thing you reach for on the way to work is a muffin and a soft drink can you give that up because you know it's not healthy and replace this with something that's good for you instead?

 

Some of us once we make our minds up, can completely change our whole diet overnight whereas some of us find it really difficult to give up certain comfort foods that have been a part of our lives for so long. Decide what you think will work best for you, start small and make permanent changes so that they become a habit so that you can achieve long-lasting results.

 

Read my article on How to set goals and create healthy habits as this will help you to prepare.

 

Commit yourself.

 

If you don't have a real reason or goal that you are working towards achieving by eating better because someone told you to, or because you feel you should, then you are setting yourself up to fail. You will feel that you are depriving yourself of your favourite foods and this will have a negative impact and only make you feel like crap.

 

Look at it this way instead. You are not depriving yourself of junk food because you want to suffer, you are choosing to make these changes because you want to be healthy, look good and feel good about yourself. Food is no longer about instant gratification and vilification later. It's now about deserving a better life for yourself and you do!

 

Keep a food diary.

 

Start by keeping a Weekly food diary. This is a good way to keep track of what you eat and drink and how much, which will help you figure out what things you need to change for the better.

 

From a weight loss perspective you can better understand why you are putting on weight and what needs to be modified in your diet to help you lose weight and/or increase certain nutrients in your diet.

 

Get back to basics.

 

Read my article on The essentials of a healthy diet to find out about the calories we need each day for our bodies to function in order for our metabolism to work and how your body digests nutrients such as proteins, carbs and fats to build muscle, transport nutrients, fuel our organs and muscles, and store energy as fat for later use.

 

Start now.

 

Go on. Remove the temptations. Clean out your fridge and cabinets of all the junk food, stock your shelves with nutritious real food and start with a whole new fresh perspective on healthy eating for a healthier lifestyle. And don't let one bad day derail all your efforts. Just pick yourself up and start again.

 

You can do it. Stay positive.