Diet refers to the way you eat, yet in modern times, the word connotes losing weight and manufacturing a better body. While eating is a necessity for all, not every method of losing weight or attaining a better body is optimal for all dieters. It’s more important to choose a diet plan that is right for you, and since no person knows you better, you need to make the majority of the decisions.
Realize Diet Is Not Deprivation
It’s easy to place the blame on certain foods. For example, due to your love of burgers and pizza, you are not a desired weight. Following the same train of thought, you may think depriving yourself of burgers and pizza is an integral part of reaching your desired weight. The truth is that several factors contribute to weight and well being, and depriving yourself of burgers and pizza forever won’t help a whole lot in losing weight and maintaining a certain level of fitness.
Food is only an ingredient associated to the recipe of successful dieting. Perhaps you need to eat less fatty foods or eat smaller portions, but you don’t need to altogether deprive yourself of the foods you love. Focus on how much you eat versus calories burned rather than what you’re eating.
Think Like a Polytheist
Polytheists don’t believe in one religion but adopt beliefs from several. Be aware of a number of diet plans and do what makes the most sense for you. For example, you may do well in understanding why a ‘no carb’ diet works yet love carbs, electing to curb your intake rather than swear off carbohydrates. Moreover, you may not enjoy high-intensity workouts yet elect to engage in a low-impact activity several times a week to burn calories.
The more you learn about nutrition and dieting, the better you’ll understand your body and how to engineer a dieting plan, taking bits and pieces and doing what seems practical and reasonable for you.
Visit the Doctor
In addition to giving advice regarding ways to diet properly and safely, your doctor may reveal a potential deficiency in your diet, which could be the reason you feel too sluggish to workout or have trouble keeping fat off your body. Visit your doctor and ask to have blood tests done, especially if you feel lethargic or have trouble maintaining a healthy weight. Moreover, your doctor can measure your bone density; some have heavier bones, yet it doesn’t mean they are not a ‘healthy weight.’
Your doctor can help you understand your body type,how your body composition and how your metabolism works. For example, ectomorphs have a high metabolism and can eat more carbohydrates. Such bodies are longer and leaner than average. Contrarily, endomorphs tend to pack on both muscle and fat and feature a slower metabolism; such types do better avoiding carbs while eating more protein and fats.
Keep a Diet Diary
Every body is different, the reason why ‘fad’ diets only work for some people some of the time. While engineering your own diet, keep track of how your body feels and reacts to certain activities, foods, and sleep/wake cycles. For instance, you may do well in losing weight with a lot of exercise and little alteration to what you eat, yet require more sleep.
This coincides with not mirroring the routine of another or expecting the same results. For example, a friend may swear by jogging in the morning, skipping lunch, and eating fish for dinner five times per week. While such a regimen may work for them, it may not render the same results for you. Maintain a diary to help you reflect and engineer a regimen that is optimal for you. Include insight from health books, HCG dieting tips, and doctor suggestions.
Take Small Steps, Not Drastic Changes
Be patient in understanding your body and how your mind and moods react to different methods. Execute your plan in small steps rather than drastic changes. Firstly, drastic measures hardly ever work, and if they do, are usually followed by a relapse or complete dismissal of dieting. Being healthy is a lifestyle and not a short-term quest to a better body.
Think of maintaining health much like a professional athlete trains. If they don’t practice and keep their skills sharp, performance suffers. Yet, if they practice each day, regularly test their skills, and don’t slack, they maintain a level of excellence.
Good luck in choosing a diet plan that fits you best. It’s a marathon that lasts a lifetime and not a quick race to getting short-term results.
Rose Wallace is a fitness instructor. She likes to write about her insights online. Her posts can be found on many fitness and health blogs.
