- Restricting calories ( dieting)
- Skipping meals
- Over training leading to injuries.
Weight that stays off is the result of a healthy lifestyle that controls and reduces the above and with balance can lead to more stable and safer way to manage your body weight.
Beware of restrictive diets
To many modern day diets have food restriction as a basis of their ability to help people lose weight. Many people find that diets that restrict certain food's or groups of foods groups lead can lead them to crave these forbidden foods. Let's face it. It's is human nature to want what we can't have. But for many people their brain chemistry may be creating a neurological link to these unhealthy or healthy foods that are consumed in unbalanced proportions on a daily basis.
If the brain thinks that food is scares, it may signal the drive to eat. Food restrictions may also affect the levels and regulation of important brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that allow nerve cells to communicate with one another. Neurotransmitters:
- Active in all aspects of nerve function
- Conscious awareness: remembering, thinking, and feeling.
Serotonin is one of the neurotransmitters that may play a role in food cravings, especially cravings for carbohydrates, such as desserts, breads, pasts and fruit. Many functions involve the release of serotonin:
- mood
- sleep onset,
- pain sensitivity
- blood pressure regulation
And many anti-depressant medication relieve depression by increasing serotonin levels in the brain. Similarly, carbohydrate intake increases brain serotonin level, which may be why some people eat carbohydrates foods when they feel stressed.
So what happens when you restrict certain foods from your diet? You get very low calorie food intake and you get hunger combined with food cravings. No wonder such diets rarely work!
Work with your body
Successful, long term weight loss occurs as a byproduct of a balanced lifestyle. When you live your life in ways that reduce feelings of hunger, food cravings and emotional stress, you are more likely to achieve the biochemical well-being that enhances weight-control efforts.
The best way to accomplish this is to enjoy plenty of physical activity. Exercise is the corner stone of successful weight control for at least two reasons.
- Physical activity burns calories and revs up your metabolism.
- Exercise makes you feel good and reduces feelings of stress and depression.
People who are successful in their weight-loss efforts almost always attribute their success to regular and consistent physical activity. In addition, physical activity helps to keep you healthy and help to prevent many chronic diseases. Exercise in a nutshell:
- Reduces your risk for high blood pressure
- Type 2 diabetes
- Heart disease
- Some types of cancer.
Avoid fatigue
A recommendation to avoid fatigue may not sound like weight-loss advice, but it is! People tend to eat more when they are bored, not activity, lethargic and "just not in the mood". This leads to people "having to eat" to get the energy that they aren't getting perhaps from their sleep deprived lifestyles. Fatigue can also lead to stress, which in turn interferes with your intentions to eat well and exercise.
Nurture your " good-mood chemistry" by getting:
- plenty of uninterrupted sleep
- enjoying a rejuvenating recreation ( yoga, sauna, massage, walking, exercise )
- drinking plenty of water.
These simple recommendations will keep you healthy and minimize your risk for developing colds and flus.
What about food?
Include plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains in your diet. Look for low-fat and whole fat choices when possible, but also include ( when appropriate, or when more good things go in then not so good things) a small serving of previously forbidden foods will help to reduce your risk for food cravings.
Keep expectations positive but realistic.
A balanced lifestyle does not mean that you will lose a dramatic amount of weight in a short period of time. In fact, a consistent exercise program coupled with a balanced approach to eating will lead to weight loss that will be more likely to stay off.
Hope you found this informative. Please share this email with your circle of influence.
Next Level
A.Pigott
