When people see or hear the word diet they usually think about a temporary eating situation that you use to gain or lose weight. That really could not be further from the truth. The word diet describes the way that you eat in general, as in you have a healthy or unhealthy diet in general. Since people tend to get confused when I mention changing their diet, I like to refer to it as a lifestyle change. If you really are serious about losing weight and becoming an overall healthier person then you can’t rely on simply dieting for a while and then going back to your normal eating habits when you’ve lost the desired amount of weight. It simply doesn’t work like that. All you’ll do is put forth all that effort to lose the weight and then gain it right back after you quit eating healthy.
The only way to make a long term change in your personal appearance is to make a long term change in your lifestyle. The most important aspect of your lifestyle is your diet: what you eat. There are a lot of resources you can check out online to help you decide which eating plan suits you best but the important thing is that you stick to that plan for as long as possible; ideally for the rest of your life. Casual dieting will do absolutely nothing except contribute to your “yoyo” dieting experience.
Things to Remove from Your Diet
Let’s get the not-so-fun part out of the way first. There are some things that you should avoid altogether; I personally don’t even recommend these things in moderation. Thankfully for many of you, this list is short. Just about everything that’s sweet and tasty can be part of your new diet if it’s in moderation.
Trans-Fats
These things are 10 different types of unhealthy. There’s really no good reason to even eat a single gram of them. They have absolutely no health benefits at all and many, many detriments. Even by fat standards they’re at the bottom of the totem pole; if fat could talk it would totally be embarrassed to be associated with trans-fat. The sneaky thing about trans-fat is that if it’s under a certain amount, food companies can say there’s absolutely none on the package. Read the ingredients and nutrition label carefully; it will almost always tell you if there’s a minute amount of trans-fat. This minute amount may not be harmful but avoid buying from these companies anyway so maybe they’ll get the hint to just avoid it altogether.
High-Sugar Energy Drinks
I know, this may be the hardest thing to get rid of. I love many of these intense energy drinks myself. And why wouldn’t I? Not only are they filled with sugar and flavorings, they’re chalked to the brim with caffeine, an addictive drug! You might think caffeine is innocent and innocuous because it’s found in everything from coffee to soda but it’s extremely addictive like many illegal drugs. Companies who make these energy drinks put tons of sugar in them and then add copious amounts of caffeine. When they reach the legal limit of caffeine they put in something called guarana seed extract. This extract is essentially just more caffeine; however, since it’s extracted from a seed and the process is different from the one they use to put caffeine in the drink, it’s perfectly legal to add. When you drink these energy drinks, you’re actually drinking potentially more than the legal, safe limit of caffeine. Caffeine is a powerful stimulant that can keep you awake. In large doses it can also give you panic attacks, high blood pressure, paranoia or a heart attack! And what’s horrible about these drinks is that they’re so chalked full of stimulants and sugars that even if you get energy from them, the crash you’ll receive when you’re body’s done storing all that sugar can make you faint and lose consciousness! If you can find a low-sugar energy drink with moderate caffeine levels, be my guest, but I honestly suggest you avoid these things altogether.
Here is a brief list of some of the few items to add to your diet: cherry juice, dried cherries, fresh fruit and natural fruit juices.
