this diet diary

hinukshines:

mylowgidiet:

1. There aren’t any shortcuts to losing weight. Forget the diet pills, juice fasts (though they do have their place), and starvation diets. You didn’t gain the 30 extra pounds in a month. Don’t expect to lose it in a month. That’s just silly.

2. You won’t get anywhere near your weight-loss goal if you’re not honest with yourself. I deceived myself for a long time. I told people, “I don’t know why I can’t lose weight. I really eat pretty healthily. It doesn’t make any sense.” When I started being honest with myself and paying attention to how many times I made diet-exceptions, I was not only shocked but a little grossed out. I was eating crap all the time and had successfully convinced myself that I was being healthy.

3. There aren’t any quick-fixes. You’re going to have to WORK. You’ve had a long day. All you want to do is leave the office, pick up some greasy fast food, go home, stuff your face, and sit on your butt the rest of the night. NOT ANYMORE! Now that you’ve decided to change your lifestyle, you better lace up those shoes and get moving!

4. You WILL NOT lose weight eating junk food. Hear me… No more once-a-week pizza. No more regular trips to Taco Bell. You want to get healthy? Be realistic. Snuggle up with some fruits and veggies. Swap chips for homemade hummus and carrots. Drink water instead of soda. I don’t care if it’s diet. Your body needs water.

5. Learn to cook. I love to cook so this one was easy. It is very difficult to find healthy foods at restaurants. A few weeks ago I was at Chili’s and planned to buy one of their “low fat” meals. At the bottom of the menu in small print were their qualifications for a low fat meal. A meal is considered low fat by Chili’s if it has less than 25 grams of fat. TWENTY!!! FIVE!!! My jaw almost hit the floor. It was a reminder to me that I need to be very careful (and smart) about what I order when eating out. You never know how much butter and salt was used to steam your broccoli. Ask for your broccoli to be steamed with just a little lemon juice instead. Skip the cheese for your salad. Get grilled chicken cooked in zero butter instead of a burger. Just because a restaurant claims that a meal is low fat, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s what YOU consider to be “low fat.”

6. You need to do your research. There are a lot of food manufacturers who claim that their food is healthy like Lean Cuisine and Smart Ones but many of those prepackaged foods are loaded with sodium, MSG, and sugar. This goes back to my statements about there not being any shortcuts and that you need to learn to cook.

7. “No pain no gain” is a legitimate statement.  Every single time I work out, the first 10 minutes are killer.  Once I push through I’m good, but that first little bit is awful.  You just have to keep on going.

8. Finally, and I think most importantly, it’s time to give up processed foods. We’ve all heard that to be healthy you need to spend 90% of your time in the grocery store shopping the perimeter of the food section. If it’s in a box, it’s probably not good for you! Shop for produce, fish, chicken, and dairy. Other than garbanzo beans so you can make homemade hummus, a few seasonings, and the occasional box of All-Bran cereal, stay out of those center aisles! The more whole-foods you eat, the healthier you’ll be.

Pretty much this.

Yep.