To finally go on a diet, start eating right, or force at least a little to limit yourself in something – it’s always very, very difficult. We postpone it until tomorrow, Monday, “after the holidays” … As a result, for months, or even years, every day we look in the mirror and reproach ourselves for small or big flaws.
In fact, it is not so difficult to decide to limit yourself in something, if you first get the right morale, and then develop a “schedule” that you will carefully adhere to.
The first step is to understand why, why, and why are you doing this?
The most important thing is to decide why you need all this? There can be a lot of options: for general health improvement, to just look better, to lose a lot of weight and become a beautiful person, for work (get a role, for a photo shoot), to wear fashionable and modern clothes, for a loved one or just for yourself, to improve its popularity among men / women …
In general, the reasons can be listed endlessly! Some arguments are serious and can really change your life for the better, and some are only disguises for real problems, and no diet will help you in this case. Answering the question “for what?”, You set a goal for yourself, in some sense even one of the “life goals”, therefore its achievement will be meaningful and effective. For example, “I will stick to a diet – I will lose weight – I will be able to wear tight and fashionable things – I will be able to go to nightclubs and feel natural and comfortable there – which means that I will be able to diversify my leisure time and make interesting acquaintances.” Here’s a specific goal – objectified and real.
Or “I will stick to a diet for two or three months – lose weight – then then I can play amateur football in a team on a par with all other fit men – as a result, my old” dream “of football will come true and rest will become more interesting.”
But the goal, the achievement of which is unlikely to change anything: “I have a not quite ideal figure – I will stick to a diet – I will have ideal proportions – then all men will pay attention to me, and I will immediately establish my personal life.” Here the last link in the chain most likely has little to do with the first, therefore, apart from anger, constant nervousness and disappointment, these “deprivations” will not bring anything else.
The second step is to determine what you will lose and what will you gain in return? Is the game worth the candle?
It is difficult to constantly keep yourself “in check” … Therefore, you need to answer the question: what will it give you? If food restrictions bring success at work (increase fees, give career growth, increase popularity), then half of your life will change dramatically for the better. If you suffer from loneliness, cannot go anywhere, are embarrassed to get acquainted, cannot dress well and beautifully, because excessive excess weight interferes, then grab yourself with both hands. Thanks to good proportions, you will have access to outfits, dances, and swimwear, which means the attention of the opposite sex.
But torturing yourself for 5 extra pounds or centimeters, thinking that this will help solve problems with your husband, personal life or respect in the company of peers, is at least stupid and ineffective. Therefore, weigh the pros and cons, and only then act.
The third step – can you do everything, or will the idea go nowhere in a couple of weeks?
Think carefully if you can meet all the requirements of the diet, if your lifestyle will interfere with this. For example, it will be difficult to follow a special menu if you constantly eat outside the home or in different places; your work involves banquets, receptions or parties; your family is used to eating plentifully and variedly; you are planning a summer vacation or a trip to your parents in the near future; you constantly meet with friends and love noisy feasts.
The fourth step is to draw up a sample menu and “schedule” of food intake.
It is not necessary to write down everything and draw tables – you can mentally plan what and how you will eat in the near future. If you have chosen a specific diet, then purchase the necessary products in advance and strictly follow the prescribed instructions. We decided to count calories – do not hesitate to study each package, use a calculator or add your daily ration to your notebook. For lunches and dinners in public places, collect information about the calorie content of the prepared dishes in advance and carefully look at the menu (there are always grams, and sometimes the number of calories). If you want to count “points” on a protein diet – calculate each meal in advance and always carry the table with you. And if you are just going to limit yourself in food, then decide in advance: for breakfast I will eat a pack of cottage cheese, for lunch I will only have vegetable salad and soup, and instead of dinner I will have a snack with fruit. And so every day!
And the fifth step is to start everything immediately!
If you have made a decision, do not postpone until tomorrow, start right now, with today’s breakfast, lunch or dinner.
If you are not psychologically ready for special diets, they seem too radical to you, and you are afraid that apart from stress and bad mood, you will get nothing, then start simple – try elementary “proper nutrition”. Maybe in a month or two you will like this way of life, you will see pleasant results in the mirror, and then you yourself and with great pleasure will switch to something more effective, because now it will not be scary at all, but even interesting.
The main points of good nutrition:
1.
It is not recommended to narrow the range of your diet. You need to try to eat different foods in order to get all the necessary substances and vitamins. The main issue is quantity. Even if you are ready to constantly give up bread, butter, sugar, salt, fatty, etc., be careful, because all this, one way or another, is necessary for our body. Therefore, at least once a week or ten days, eat a slice of bread, a sandwich with butter, a cup of sweet tea or a piece of dark chocolate.
2. Watch the quality of food: it is important that everything is fresh, ripe and preferably natural. Dishes that are eaten hot should not be eaten cold. It is good if for the most part you eat natural products that are close to all natural and prepared in traditional ways. For example, boiled chicken and baked potatoes are much healthier for our body than deep-fried chips and chicken wings.
3. Be careful with sweets. It is best not to abuse it, but to eat it once a day separately from the main meal – for breakfast or as an afternoon snack. Dessert after a hearty lunch or dinner will greatly inhibit the digestion process, which means that everything eaten will go into extra pounds.
4. Drink before meals, not after or during. The liquid, taken about 10-15 minutes before meals, revitalizes the internal secretion and satisfies the primary hunger, which contributes to weight correction.
5. If you like milk, then use it separately, because it is not a drink, but a very nutritious food. If you want to lose weight, do not use milk with a roll, cookies and do not cook milk porridge.
6. Don’t overeat. It’s best to end your meal when you want to eat another piece of something. Another wise phrase says: “You need to get up from the table with a feeling of slight hunger.”
7. Eat a few hours before bed. The longer this period of time, the more successfully you will lose weight. It is also not recommended to rest (lie down to sleep) after lunch or a hearty snack.
8. It is useful to follow the order.
After you have quenched your thirst, it is best to eat a salad of fresh vegetables and herbs, because they are digested the fastest. Then you can eat stewed or boiled vegetables, and at the end – protein foods. Although there is no purely proteinaceous and purely carbohydrate food in nature, it has recently been considered rational and competent not to mix bread and meat, potatoes and fish or chicken in one meal, that is, predominantly starchy food with animal protein. Such mixtures are objectively longer and more difficult to digest, since different digestive juices are required for the digestion of individual components.
If you want to lose weight without unnecessary effort, calculations and charts, then try to adhere to simple restrictions for a month or two. Of course, you can’t get rid of a lot in this way, but five or three extra pounds will definitely go away.
1. Don’t eat sweets – almost nothing. No cakes, sweets, chocolates, sweet tea or coffee. But it’s naturally hard without sweets, so you can afford a couple of pieces of dark chocolate once a week.
Do not eat anything flour: bread, pancakes, dumplings. This is exactly what will have to be completely abandoned.
3. Choose foods such as cheese, eggs, cottage cheese, vegetables and fruits for your main diet. Meat and chicken are better cooked. Salads – not with mayonnaise, but with butter.
4. Try not to eat as much as possible before bed. It’s great if you can hold out and not eat from 17-18 hours until the next morning.
5. Exercise 5 minutes twice a day (morning and evening). You can do both simple gymnastics and exercises on the press or with dumbbells, twist a hoop, rotate on a metal disc.