“Healthy” habits that add on extra inches can be broken
Alex Hum
Features Editor
The quest to lose weight is one that often ends unsuccessfully. Achieving that slimmer waistline can become a seemingly unachievable task to those torturing themselves with a so-called diet. But what if you are unconsciously sabotaging your diet?
If you have already taken the steps to change your eating habits, take a look at these five dieting pitfalls, which may be causing you to gain weight, and five remedies to those problems.
Eat a healthy breakfast.
Even when dieting, it is essential to start your morning off with a good meal. Eating breakfast gets your metabolism going early in the day. That kick-start of energy will continue for the remainder of the day. Eating a good breakfast also prevents you from craving junk food later on when you are low on energy.
Eating small-sized portions throughout the day helps to keep that metabolism up. Do not (I repeat, do not) starve yourself. It will not only negatively affect your body in a number of ways, but it will eventually lead to binge eating near the end of the day. Eating after dinner will only sabotage your diet. Your biggest meal should be at the start of the day and then decrease in size up to dinner.
Not all fats are bad.
Don’t be mistaken: eating fat is not stopping you from slimming down; you may be mistaking that with sugar. That’s not to say eating excessive amounts of fat is good for you, but you need some healthy fats to burn the bad ones. Some examples of good fats are those found in fish oil and olive oil because they help break down cholesterol.
Fats also have the added bonus of making you feel fuller for a longer period of time. Allowing some healthy fats into your diet will stop you from reaching for that bag of chips, full of unhealthy saturated fats.
Say no to sodas and fruit juice.
The sugar in carbonated drinks is not doing your body any good. Many believe that fruit juice is a healthy alternative to soda. If there’s fruit in it, it must be somewhat healthy, right? Wrong.
In fact, fruit juice is just as bad as, if not worse than, drinking soda. It contains high levels of fructose, a sugar. Drinking too much fruit juice will speed up the accumulation of fat, and though it’s cool, sweet, and refreshing, it will keep you pudgier than you would be without it. In short, a glass will not do much harm, but any more is setting your diet back more than you realize.
Instead, eating fruits and vegetables will satisfy that craving for something sweet, and give you necessary vitamins and fibers at the same time.
Don’t skimp on the water.
Surely, you have heard you should be drinking eight glasses a day. Your body needs to stay hydrated to function properly, and stay alert.
Using water to quench your thirst ensures you do not resort to other sugar-filled drinks. Water also fills up your tank a little more, keeping you fuller and away from the junk food and all that unnecessary snacking. Drinking a small amount of water before a meal will also help keep you from binge eating, and wanting to pass out afterwards.
Extra tip: consuming less alcohol will help your diet. Alcohol adds up to a lot of extra calories that will end up working against you.
No cheating.
Many diets suggest cheat days to help you cope with the changes. A cheat day is the one day a week where you allow yourself to eat as much of whatever you desire, which is otherwise not allowed by your diet.
Don’t kid yourself. A diet is a lifestyle change that takes full commitment. With a high-calorie cheat day, you reverse all the progress you’ve made that week.
Instead of cutting out the unhealthy foods you love altogether, simply decrease portion sizes. That way, you won’t need the cheat day. Avoid these entirely so you don’t throw away all the hard work you put in to get in shape.
