How You Can Develop Lasting Weight Loss

Being kind and caring to yourself is a better way to approach weight loss.

With that comes understanding and faith that you can accomplish your goal without stress.

Restrictive dieting is a thing of the past, a dinosaur. You now have a better way that works.

Going on a diet is unnecessary and an unkind thing to do to yourself. Why is it unkind? Because right at the outset you’ve started the stress cycle. More stress equals more cravings.

In fact, you probably started craving all kinds of things right at the moment you decided to restrict your food intake.

Isn’t that usually how things go?

Diets make people upset and usually drives their emotion down. You immediately start to think of all the things you have to give up, right?

Wouldn’t it be better to work with our natural instincts that desire nutrient-dense foods?

It’s a winning strategy that’ll lead to weight loss that lasts. Because it’s not a particular diet you must stick to. It’s just your way of life. See? You feel better already, right?

No, it’s not a big mistake

It’s true that humans didn’t evolve desiring to eat healthy food. We definitely didn’t care a whole lot about how many calories were in what foods.

The brain was 100% attuned to seeking out nutrient-dense foods purely for survival.

Did it ever occur to you that the reason diets fail and cause us to crave like crazy is that we’re going against millions of years of evolution?

Were our ancient ancestors obese because of their eating habits?

Hardly! They were lean, mean hunters living in a harsh world. But, to many creatures, they were nutrient-dense food. They couldn’t be overweight.

These early humans ate what they needed to survive.

Life has become way too comfortable

Life has completely changed from those harsh days, hasn’t it?

Food is abundant. We can order food in and sit on the sofa binge-watching our favorite shows all night. No problem there, right?

Don’t misunderstand me. There’s no way I’d want to go back to those harsh dog-eat-dog days. I love modern society. We can focus more on creation than running for our lives.

But there’s a problem. There’s too much nutrient-dense food available and much of it is manufactured that way. It’s designed to tickle our taste buds and trigger those deep, ancient desires for calorie-rich foods.

Oh and don’t get me started on the marketing they use to suck you in. Look at the images used. They know exactly what they’re doing. They spend millions figuring out the right buttons to push.

That brings me to the other problem. The human brain hasn’t evolved anywhere near as much as our technology-driven, modern world. It has the same desires it’s had for a long, long, time.

So what can we do about it to control our weight?

Stop trying to enforce restrictive diets on yourself

Now you know why dieting can never be successful in the long term. You need a better strategy.

Try to stop doing these things:

• Stop blaming yourself for eating certain foods• Stop restricting your diet to only healthy foods• Stop believing you can alter millions of years of evolution in just 30 days• Stop listening to restrictive dieting advice• Stop trying to give up all indulgent foods. It’s unnecessary.• Stop always looking for foods labeled “healthy.” I’ll tell you why soon

Try to start doing these things:

• Start being grateful for everything you have in your life.• Start being kind to yourself no matter what. Especially if you think you’ve messed something up.• Start loving yourself exactly as you are right now. You’re a beautiful person.• Start looking for and eating foods that are nutrient-dense AND good for you. • Start enjoying your food, eating slowly, and without distractions like your phone or TV. Listen to your body cues so you don’t overeat.• Start eating food you love but without overeating.

Don’t just eat foods labeled “healthy”, “Good for you”, or other similar wordings

To the brain, foods labeled healthy equate to unsavory or unsatisfying. They don’t seem to fill you up and you usually feel hungry soon after eating them.

Most of this has to do more with our beliefs or expectations than the calories in healthy food.

Let me tell you about a study done with a group of university students.

One group was shown a description and image of a milkshake that looked and sounded very indulgent. It stated it was creamy and delicious etc. The image showed ice cream with sprinkles and chocolate. Mouthwatering.

The second group was shown a description and image of a milkshake labeled “healthy” and “good for you.” The image was plain and just showed a vanilla flower, the ingredient of the milkshake.

The scientists took blood tests from the students to measure levels of the hunger hormone. When this hormone level is high we want to eat. It naturally goes lower after we eat and that makes us feel satisfied.

The first group had the delicious, decadent milkshake, Their hunger hormone went down normally and stayed down for a few hours.

The second group had the “healthy” and “good for you” milkshakes. Their hunger hormone showed no change at all and they didn’t feel satisfied. They were still hungry and looked for snacks after they had finished their milkshake.

The fascinating thing is, that both these milkshakes were exactly the same. Exactly the same ingredients.

It was the belief, the expectation that so-called “healthy” food is not satisfying and won’t fill you up.

Isn’t that amazing? That proves that it’s a lot to do with your beliefs about food that determines how much you eat.

Here are a number of helpful things for you to try

1. Make sure there are no distractions. Pay attention to what you’re eating. Try your best to make strong memories of your experience. This will help you feel satisfied for longer.

2. To stop yourself from snacking a lot, try reminding yourself of what you ate for your last meal. Forgetting what you ate can cause you to overeat. Remembering what you ate and taking a few minutes to relive the experience can handle cravings. Try it, it works!

3. Be aware of food labels and descriptions that give you a sense that you’re depriving yourself. You can still find low-calorie meals that give you that warm feeling of indulgence. You’ll be surprised how well this works.

4. When you’re eating, really focus on the flavors, textures, and appearance. Find anything that increases your enjoyment of your food so you feel satisfied.

5. Avoid sweetened drinks like soda and even sweetened fruit juices. Even though they’re high in calories, it won’t seem satisfying. It’ll make you overeat. Eating solid food is better when you’re trying to lose weight.

6. Before you start to eat your meal, really take note of what you’re about to eat. Enjoy the anticipation of eating it. It’ll help you feel more satisfied afterward.

7. Never feel guilty about the occasional treat. Enjoy that sweet moment of pleasure.

Final thoughts

Don’t become obsessive about trying to lose weight. It never works. It causes stress and releases the stress hormone that makes you eat more.

Focus on becoming healthy but without depriving yourself of nutrient-dense, good-quality food

Take it easy and be kind to yourself. Even if one day you completely go off the track, don’t worry about it. Just tell yourself you’ll do better tomorrow, and keep going.

Be grateful for yourself and your body. Love yourself no matter what.

Yes, we can all do better and improve ourselves. But do it from a place of kindness, patience, and love. You’ll not only get better results, but you’ll also be much happier.

There’s nothing more important than loving who you are right now!