Each and every day, millions of people wake up with a single goal in mind, they want to start dieting, lose weight, and begin living a healthier life style. However, even with these goals held close to our hearts, our conviction often breaks as we pass the nearest fast food restaurant, realizing that we began the day without breakfast. The story of abandoned diets is one that stretches far and wide, and can probably apply to nearly anyone. But, for those who are truly serious about their attempts to lose weight, it often becomes more important to watch what your not eating, instead of what you are.
When a person begins a diet, they often set out a list or group of foods that they can and will eat while they are trying to lose weight. And, while this strategy does work for some, as life goes on and the diet goes further and further to the back of our minds, we can often find it hard to focus on that select group of food we have set out for ourselves. Thus, we begin to lose sight of our diets and our plans, this can lead to the failure of even the most well planned and executed attempts to lose weight.
With that in mind, perhaps trying an alternative strategy can bring life back to your diet, and give you a fighting chance to lose that weight that you’ve been trying to get rid of for so long. With ideas of losing weight and being healthy in mind, remember that the following foods or groups listed can spell disaster for your attempts:
1. Cookies/Cakes/Pie/Deserts in general
Cakes, cookies and other baked sweets, while they may not seem as bad as processed candy bars or sugary snacks can literally destroy a diet. Even though baked goods may have less outright sugar than, say, a chocolate bar, sugar is not the only thing you have to look out for when trying to diet. Namely, baked items such as cakes and cookies are made with a lot of white flour, butter, milk and other very fatty ingredients. When you eat anything made of unhealthy ingredients, than it seems only natural that the food itself will also be unhealthy. Although that delicious, moist slice of chocolate cake may seem tempting, remember to be strong, your body and your stomach will thank you in the end.
2. Alcohol
Although many may like the occasional drink, drinking any alcohol during a diet has serious risks. Both liquor and beer contain a massive amount of calories, and beer is loaded with carbohydrates, it is truly one of the most fattening and unhealthy things that a person can drink. Also, drinking alcohol increases the risk that you may go off your diet with junky, greasy food such as potato chips or quick, frozen food. Remember, to make a diet work, you also have to make lifestyle changes, and reducing the amount of alcohol that you take in is just one of the changes, but it is change that can definitely help in the battle to lose some weight and stay healthy.
3. Speaking of chips
Don’t eat them, or French fries, or any fried potato product. Although potato’s seem to have a gotten a bad rap, it is perfectly fine, and healthy, to enjoy mashed potatoes for dinner or have a baked potato for a healthy lunch. However, when it comes to fried potatoes, which includes fries, chips, or anything of that nature, your best bet is just to avoid it completely. All fried food, by it’s very nature, has a lot of unhealthy fat in it, and are one of those foods where it is very easy to over eat. Meaning that although we would like to think that we follow the recommended serving size when we eat, when it comes to snack food such as potato chips or pretzels, the serving sizes are usually very small, and it is easy to eat more than you intended to, which is a great way to take in a lot of unplanned fat and cholesterol.
4. Soda and caffeine
The debate over whether or not caffeine should be eaten while on a diet is one that has continued for many years. However, the popular opinion on caffeine, and any carbonated, caffeine containing beverage in general, is that they should be avoided while on a diet. Caffeine contains the chemical “methylxanthine”, putting it into a class of chemicals that have a stimulating affect on the body, very similar to many artificial drugs. The danger, of course, is that excessive amounts of caffeine can reek havoc on a body’s digestive system and metabolism. Also, although many people are not aware of it, caffeine actually causes blood sugar to drop, meaning that we then seek out sugary substances such as chocolate or candy, both of which are very bad for diets and for healthy living in general. However, that is not to say that there is anything wrong with an occasional cup of coffee or tea, which can be a pleasant and stimulating experience. The danger lies in over use of caffeine, and definitely in drinking too many soft drinks or cola products. The best bet for anyone on a diet is to avoid caffeine and caffeine related products, it is one of the unknown dangers that can spoil your diet and your attempts to lose weight.
5. Fast Food
It may not come as a shock to anyone, but if one is trying to achieve a permanent weight loss, which means keeping off the weight that they lose, than fast, greasy food should be cut out of diets completely. Unlike most foods, which, even if unhealthy, have some redeeming qualities, fast food restaurants have nothing to do with even resembling healthy food. In fact, it has even been suggested that fast food can cause compulsive eating, and that eating it creates a sort of addiction, or at least does not fill up the body in a way which food should. Of course, it takes only a little common sense to sort out the reasoning behind this. Our minds and bodies naturally want to eat healthy and nutritious food, thus the reason that we feel full and satisfied when we eat something like a salad or a home cooked meal. When we take in food that is good for us, and has a lot of nutrition, our bodies reward us by stopping hunger and creating an overall “good” feeling. However, when we eat junky or fast food, our bodies do not experience that same feeling upon finishing a meal, leaving us feeling unfulfilled and, in some cases, still hungry, partially contributing to the way that many tend to overeat junk food or food that is bad for you; our bodies do not register enough nutrition, so they tell us to keep eating.
In order to make a permanent change in lifestyle, to lose weight and actually keep it off for years to come, we need to do much more than simply follow the latest fad diet or hit the gym once a week (although exercise is incredibly important to losing weight). In order to lose weight in the long run, it really does take change. A change in eating habits, a change in physical activities, a change in almost everything. When it comes to losing weight though, it is important to remember that your sacrifices will pay off in the end. Always remember that the hard road is the one worth taking, and the only way to truly live a healthy life, is to create a healthy lifestyle.
