Losing weight is hard enough as it is. Maintaining your ideal weight is an even bigger challenge. The tricky thing about dieting is that the obstacles remain even after the prescribed period of the regimen. No matter if it’s a quick 3-day diet, or a longer 6-month plan, the real hurdle begins once you’re off the tracker.
The first mistake often committed by yoyo-dieters is in how they quickly revert to their bad eating habits, thereby gaining back the weight they’ve lost. To stay on the right track, reduction and moderation are always going to be important. Try out these few simple steps, and you’ll find that you are in much better control of your own eating habits.
1. Choose Healthy Grains
Grains are a fantastic source of fiber. Then again, it is also a heavy supplier of carbohydrates. As you may very well know, carbs are the all-dreaded fattening ingredient. Now, you don’t have to absolutely shun grains in light of this association with carbs. What you can do is to instead choose the healthier types, so you can always opt for the low-fat varieties. If you can’t be without your grains, then limit your serving to at least one to two a day.
2. Keep Off Sugar
Yes, this is definitely tough, especially what with all those delectable treats waiting for you after a full meal. Well, there are other sweet alternatives – natural, sweet alternatives – that you can take, such as fruits and low-fat yogurt. Remember, sugar leads you to store fat, and you don’t want fat. So aside from the cakes and pastries, it’s also time to replace those sweetened teas and sodas with a more refreshing and healthy choice, like water.
3. Stuff Up On Proteins And Vegetables
Since we’ve already discussed reforming your carbohydrates and sugar intake, let’s discuss what you should be stuffing yourself with instead. Lean meat and vegetables are always a good combination. It provides you with the protein your body requires, and it helps you burn the fat that you’ve stored after all those midnight snacks. There are a lot of great recipes you can try, too, so it shouldn’t get boring for your palette to quick at all.
4. Eat Slowly
By eating slowly, it means chewing slowly. Studies have found that chewing food quickly does not really break down the food very well, which can lead to indigestion in the near future. Aside from that, however, the signals from your stomach saying that it is already full travels at a much slower rate to your brain. As such, by the time the information registers, you would have already over-eaten.
Pace yourself during a meal, chew slowly, so that your systems will work in sync in telling you that you are already full. There will be a lot of eye-candies, but when your body tells you to stop, heed it and stop.
What other basic, yet often overlooked and forgotten, tips would you add to this list that have helped you maintain your desired weight? Let us know below!