Weight Loss Tips - How To Maintain A Healthy Relationship With Food While Dieting

If you’re on a fat loss diet plan, there may be a chance that you could come to ‘fear’ certain foods after so long.  You’ve been conditioned to know which foods are ‘good’ and which foods are ‘bad’ and do everything you can to stay away from the bad ones and only eat the good ones.

The big problem with this good and bad thinking however is that it forms a negative association in your mind regarding certain foods in the diet.  If you’re not careful, this could lead to eating disorders over time, which are very serious and could require extensive treatment to overcome.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the important things that you should remember that will help you maintain a more positive relationship with food while dieting.


Think In Terms Of Healthy Or Not Healthy

The very first thing that you should be doing to maintain a healthy relationship with food is think in terms of healthy or not healthy rather than good or bad.  This shifts the perspective and allows you to focus on the health benefits that certain foods provide, which is a much healthier association.

Try filling your diet with the most nutritious foods that you can, not because they are low in calories but because they will do the most for you from a nutritional point of view.


Plan For Cheat Meals

Next, another thing that you should be doing is planning some cheat meals into your program. Cheat meals are great because they give you psychological relief from strict diets and help you see that eating a food that’s ‘off’ your diet list won’t automatically make you gain all the fat you’ve lost right back.

This is key for maintaining that healthy relationship with food.  Cheat meals should be scheduled once every week or two for maximum benefits.  More frequently may not be a good idea as it could hinder progress, but making sure to get them in every so often is important.


Periodically Take Diet Breaks

Finally, the last thing to keep in mind is that you should periodically add some diet breaks as well.  This is key for helping you learn your new maintenance calorie intake so you don’t start thinking that you must maintain a very low calorie intake in order to succeed with keeping the weight off.

Often what occurs is that as you progress on the diet, your metabolism slows down so you start decreasing your calorie intake further to spark more fat loss, but over time, this leads to a very low calorie intake.

Before you know it you’re scared of eating more again for fear all the weight will come rushing back on.

Diet breaks will not only help to reset your metabolism but also teach you that you can eat more food and still maintain your body weight.

So there you have the most important things to note about maintaining a healthy relationship with food while dieting. For your psychological health, this is a must.

Weight Loss Control Tips - Making Smart Alcohol Choices

If you’re on a fat loss diet program, alcohol is something that you should be strictly limiting.  Not only is alcohol very calorie dense coming in at seven calories per gram, but it’s also going to put an immediate halt to all fat loss progress going on when you consume it.
Not to mention the fact that when you indulge in a few drinks your will power to stick with your diet will also go down, therefore it could cause you to start eating foods that you shouldn’t.

That said, not everyone can cut out drinking from time to time as it is something that’s heavily linked to normal socialization, so if you feel like drinking isn’t something that you can give the boot to, at the very least it’s helpful to know which drink choices you should be choosing.



Let’s have a look at the top considerations.

The Good

Straight Liquor With Seltzer Water

The very first choice that you should consider is one ounce of your favourite liquor with simple seltzer water or plain water.  This will contain only around 70 calories per drink, so is a much lighter option.
If you can alternate this with one glass of plain water, all the better.

White Wine

If wine is your thing, the good news is that this is also a relatively lower calorie choice as well.  Most wines range from 90-150 calories per glass depending on the variety, so if you keep your total number of glasses down, it doesn’t have to destroy your diet plan.

Like the above, it’s always a good idea to alternate one alcohol drink with one non.

Light Beer

Light beer is another choice that you may want to consider.  If you’re a big fan of beer but don’t like what it does to your weight, light beer is almost half the calories so will be much less devastating to your diet plan.

Light beer is also lower in total carbohydrates, so that’s definitely a plus as well.



The Bad


Creamy Liquors

Now we move on to the less than optimal choices.  Creamy liquors are one drink to beware of as they contain alcohol, fat, and sugar in one, so will really be a doozy as far as sticking with your diet is concerned.

Often these are mixed with milk as well, so while the milk is healthy, it will add extra calories.  Most creamy liquors will come in around 120 calories per ounce, so it will add up quickly.

Frozen Beverages

Frozen slushy beverages are also something to be very careful about. These can easily contain upwards of 400 calories once everything is added in and will do a real number on your waistline.

They contain far too much sugar as well, which will be very bad if you’re trying to prevent a hangover.  The combination of so much sugar plus alcohol entering the body is a sure-fire recipe for body fat gain.  The sugar will spike the insulin levels and since there is no carbohydrate oxidation taking place (as the body will be 100% focused on burning off the alcohol calories), this means that sugar will move right into body fat stores.

Cocktails

Finally, the last beverages to avoid are any fancy cocktail like drinks.  These also contain higher amounts of sugar and will often contain more than one different type of alcohol as well.

Most come in at around 300 calories or more, so will put a big dent in your diet if you have two or three that evening.

So be sure that you keep these points in mind if you do plan to drink on your diet.  Alcohol does tend to hinder your progress so you really must make a choice as to what is most important to you – weight loss success or indulging in your favourite drinks.

Weight Maintenance Tips: Succeed With Keeping Weight Off

One of the most important things that you must do after you’ve finished your fat loss plan is move into successful maintenance.  Really, a diet is not successful unless it allows you to keep the weight off that you’ve lost for good.  Otherwise, you just found a temporary fix to a long-term problem.

Many people do often struggle with maintenance which is why they find themselves back in the diet seat shortly after they come off their diet plan.

Fortunately, with a few key tricks you can succeed with maintaining your new body and enjoy all the hard work that you put in.



Let’s have a quick peak at some of the top maintenance tips to remember.

Keep A Tight Weight Range

The very first thing that successful maintainers do is set a narrow weight range that they will allow themselves to fluctuate between.  For instance, if your goal weight is 125 pounds, you might only let yourself get up to 128 before you start taking action.

Remember, it’s far easier to shed 3 pounds of weight gained with a few simple diet modifications than it is to shed 20 that you’ve let yourself gain back.

As soon as you see yourself creeping upwards, take action and tighten up your diet or a week.  It’ll be gone in no time.



Diet During The Week

The second thing that you might consider to help you with maintenance is to maintain a lower calorie intake during the week.  What this does is creates a mini-calorie deficit that you can then use during the weekend when you are more social and the chances of you consuming more calories are greater.

Since most people do struggle with the weekends a lot more than weekdays, this gives you some leeway for going out to social functions or just treating yourself to something that you desire.



Maintain Your Exercise Levels

Another key thing for successful maintenance is making sure that you maintain your exercise levels.  Exercise is one of the biggest factors that will predict long-term weight maintenance so stick with that workout program.

This will help you maintain a higher metabolic rate overall to prevent fat gain and also help you maintain lean muscle mass, which naturally burns more calories all day long.



Indulge Once Per Day

Finally, if you decide that you do need to treat yourself on any given day, make sure that you limit yourself to just one treat per day. If you let yourself get too out of control and are treating here and there all day long, it will add up to weight gain.

If you’re craving chocolate, have a small piece, enjoy it, and then put the box away.  A 100 calorie treat really won’t have much influence on your weight but six or seven of them will.  Remember that and you’ll keep yourself in check.

So there you have the top things to note for successful maintenance.  If you work hard at it and make sure you keep yourself accountable, you can maintain your new body for years to come.