Individuals who have successfully gone through a body transformation have a unique view of health. In the scope of a person’s life, weight loss is one of the most difficult things to accomplish. Emerging science is discovering reasons why sticking to a dietary plan can be so overwhelming. In reality, people fail on diets most often because it is natural to do so.
Every hormonal mechanism in the body is geared toward metabolic protection. Whenever changes happen, the body and brain respond. This includes radical shifts in the way a person eats. Though the shift is positive, and geared toward having a more fit body, it registers internally as a shock. In essence, the most common causes of a diet failing come from within.
Here are a few ways to prevent self-sabotage when dieting for health and aesthetic reasons. Achieving a beach body is possible, but a change is not instantaneous. Dieting success comes from what is found on your dinner plate, and from how you approach making changes.
Choose the Right Diet for YOU!
Not every diet plan is created equally. Some are based on simple caloric restrictions. Others, rest on the introduction of certain nutrient combinations into the body. Some sophisticated diets are designed around clinical research regarding things like food allergies, genetics, and blood types. Before starting a diet, take the time to discover the details behind as many plans as possible. If your lifestyle and biological propensities are not conducive to success on a certain diet, there is no reason to set yourself up for failure from the beginning. Ask people who have achieved the goals you have in mind how they did it. Starting with the right plan is essential.
Weekly Meal Organization and Planning
It is much easier to quit a diet if randomness is part of the daily food equation. If a person thinks about dieting on a daily basis, a sense of progress can be squelched. Instead, choose one day to organize and prepare foods for the coming week. Though your family and roommates could have a problem with this, it’s a powerful tool. Using storage containers, measure portions of foods that will be eaten during the week. This means every meal for each day including supplements, snacks, and meal replacements. This technique provides a sense of achieving diet success over larger portions of the calendar.
Don’t Punish Yourself
Never focus on how dissatisfied you are with your body when dieting. All this does is prompt the brain to release more negative hormones. Keep in mind the popular gym mantra that says, “Don’t look back, you are not going that way!” Always look toward positive physical changes that are possible in the near future, and in the months ahead.
Make Hydration a Priority
Once a body adapts to a diet, it discovers the systemic benefits of shedding unused fat. Successful dieting completely changes the way a body digests food for fuel. This happens at a cellular level. If a person fails to drink enough water each day, metabolic processes will slow down. Combined with caloric restrictions, it could result in terrible fatigue. When dieting, a good gauge for water consumption is to drink one ounce of water for each pound of body weight. Remember, eating many watery fruits and vegetables helps.
Plan a Cheat Meal
Food has several roles. The first is to provide the body with fuel for movement, metabolism, and cellular repair. Dieters sometimes forget that food is also meant to be enjoyable for humans. How can a person expect to use food for a positive outcome, when they make it their main enemy. Food tastes good! Once every week, if you desire, plan a sensible cheat meal. Make a favorite food your reward for a successful dieting week.
Bring Weight Loss Into Perspective
Modern society tends to place value only on things that provide immediate results and benefits. Yo-yo weight gain and loss is most often caused by quick diets. Horrifyingly harsh quick diets do not give the body time to learn a new way to operate. Have an overall weight loss goal, but be sure to spread it out over a healthy span of time. A few permanently lost fat pounds each month beats quick losses that cannot be managed.
Utilize a Network
Losing fat permanently requires lifestyle changes, and gaining knowledge about how to live healthier. Treat a diet as a positive intervention with a beach body in mind. Begin a diet with a few friends who also want to make changes. Support and encouragement is always good when dieting struggles occur.
Get Rid of the “Will Power” Mentality
Never approach a diet as adopting a series of things you cannot enjoy. Dieting is not about abstinence for a short period, then falling back into bad nutritional habits. It’s about discovering the benefits of being fit, and feeling secure in understanding strategies that allow it to happen.
Remember, it is perfectly natural to have certain diet failures until the right plan is found. In no way does this mean that diets are only trial and error. It means that each attempt is a time to learn about how the body works when it comes to gaining and losing weight. Finally achieving that summer body is possible for anyone. Some people however, should start planning far in advance to allow for setbacks. Dieting is not a punishment. It is an opportunity to create your best physical self.
