Want to lose weight? Focus on your health.

A variety of healthy food to lose weight

Have you been trying to lose weight?

Have you tried counting calories, cutting carbs, and replacing meals?

Are your weight loss efforts causing your meals to get smaller with very little change to your weight?

Are you feeling miserable?

lose weight health
Photo by Jason Briscoe on Unsplash

The good news

It is possible to lose weight without feeling hungry all the time.

and

It is possible to achieve weight loss without living on special weight loss drinks or taking weight loss pills or even following a restrictive weight loss program.

This method will:

  • Improve your health.
  • Help you maintain a healthy weight.
  • Provide you with the energy you need every day.

Sound good?

Then welcome to healthy eating. No gimmicks, just eating foods that are healthier, reducing foods that are less healthy, and adding in some extra activity to each day.

I hear friends and colleagues talking about their latest weight loss attempts all the time. I hear them talking about special shakes, the reasons they will never eat carbs again, and the most absurd rules about food timing and the supplements they take to help fuel the fat burn.

Don’t get me wrong, I have been there. I have tried all the weird and wonderful weight loss plans but then I stopped. The reason I stopped is because I learned about nutrition and I learned about exercise. Instead, I learned how the body works and suddenly, many of these things stopped making sense.

Healthy eating, on the other hand, made perfect sense.

It encourages a balanced diet that promotes overall health and wellbeing. Healthy eating becomes a weight loss diet, simply by creating a small deficit in your calories and consuming more weight loss-friendly foods.

It accounts for your individual needs and activity level

Lessons I learned to lose weight

I now eat more than I ever did, My body composition is better, I am stronger and I have better endurance in my workouts. I am also healthier, I get ill less often and I have more energy.

I learned some simple tips to lose weight:

  • Resistance training changes my body shape in a way that no other exercise can. It builds strong lean muscle and reduces body fat.
  • Cardiovascular exercise is important to exercise the heart and lungs, so some should be included.
  • Eating more protein helps me build and maintain muscle mass.
  • The bathroom scales tell me nothing. It doesn’t matter what I weigh, it is my body fat percentage that matters most.
  • Carbohydrates include vegetables.
  • The best starchy carbohydrates are high in fiber — think whole grains, they are good for my heart and my bowel health.
  • Vegetables come first because they contain so many important nutrients that impact every part of my body, my mental wellbeing, and my immune system.
  • I need good fat. Certain vitamins are fat-soluble and Omega 3 fats are important for heart health.
  • Refined carbohydrates, processed foods, sugars, and trans-fats do not serve any purpose. They are high in calories and give you little to no nutrition in return.
  • Certain foods and spices can have a bigger impact on burning fat and increasing vitamins, but not enough to do the job without good nutrition and exercise helping them out.
  • Lack of sleep and stress can undo even the best healthy eating and exercise regime. Ensure these are kept in check.

Focus on what your food has to offer

When you start focusing on what you are getting out of food, healthy eating becomes easy. When you are faced with a choice of a calorie-packed, sugar mountain of cake vs a fruit salad, make your first thought “what am I getting out of this?”

Learn the vitamin and mineral content and the macronutrient profile of foods and make them your deciding factor. Fat loss becomes a secondary benefit. You will naturally eat foods that are lower in sugars and fats and opt for foods that increase your energy levels and make you feel fuller for longer. After a time, you won’t even have to think about what you eat because you’ll instinctively make great food choices.

Exercise is important too and getting active will vastly benefit your health. Make great choices here too. Find activities that you enjoy doing because you will want to do them. If you don’t know what they are yet, join some classes and try some outdoor activities to give some new things a try. Even strength training comes in different forms, it’s not all about lifting heavy weights at the gym, bodyweight training can work just as well and HIIT training can be a great way to exercise if you have little time.

Always be sure to check with your GP or health care professional before starting a new exercise or nutrition program and seek support from an exercise professional to ensure you are exercising correctly.