YoYo’s World

  I always remember being told when I was younger to eat everything that was on my plate; I couldn’t leave the table if I didn’t. As I grew older, weight and looks slowly became an ‘issue.’ (The middle school years are brutal.) I began to think about how much I weighed, which in time made me think about how much I ate. I would get annoyed at how I would have multiple servings knowing full well I didn’t need to be eating as much as I was. I always wanted second servings of the Blue Box Mac and Cheese and I always loved tons and tons of mashed potatoes topped with corn and gravy.

After really taking my health into consideration, I decided to make the proactive choice of adopting a healthy diet. I changed nearly everything I ate. I made sure I was eating fruits and veggies, cut back of fatty foods and simple carbs. I even cut back on cholesterol by eating less red meat. I also decided to add several snack periods (morning, afternoon and night) where I would eat a piece of fruit or yogurt. After sticking to this new nutritional diet I began to notice something strange. When it came to my main meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner, I began to not crave as much food. Why? Because I eat snacks!! Yes yes I know this may have seemed like the obvious answer prior to reading this article. Our moms have been telling us for years to not “eat that cookie or else you’ll ruin your dinner!” Well she was right.The difference here is, when I would snack before, I would just get the random urge to eat something and then I’d go to the cupboard. Simple as that. Now what I do is I have habitual snack periods and I make sure what I’m consuming is mostly healthy and good. Habitual and healthy snacks have led to me not overeating when it came to the regular meals.

Doing all of this has led to many benefits I’ve noticed:

1) Food is no longer a provider of comfort. I no longer eat because I’m bored, tired, sad or angry. I eat because I’ve made it a habit to only eat during certain times of the day and it doesn’t bug me because I eat enough to keep me going during down times of not eating.

2) No random urges. Since I am not eating when I randomly get hungry, it allows keeps my sweet tooth from waking up. So during the times in which I am eating, I’m eating healthily. This means I’m getting the nutrients I need to stay energized throughout the day; I’m setting myself up for a healthier body down the road and I’m losing weight.

What many don’t realize is the best way to lose weight is to eat healthy and exercise, consistently, for the rest of your life (or as long as your body will allow). There is no secret diet or quick short cut. It’s about a whole lifestyle change. You need to look at food, diet and exercise in a completely new light if you want to lose weight and keep it off; end of story.

Explaining the bodily mechanics of what goes on in your body is very simple. Before you decided to change your life style you weren’t providing your body with the necessary nutrients consistently. Because of this, your body went into a partial “starvation mode” where it was saving certain nutrients because it knew it may not get it the next day. This means you were lugging around extra weight on your bones when you didn’t need to be. Once you can convince your body you will give it what it needs, by consistently eating well, it will gladly get rid of excess weight anything and you will soon find you need new clothes.

To help you out I’m going to give you a tool I made that helped me; daily food log. This is something I came up with when I first began changing my diet and it’s helped me see what things I’m eating throughout the day. This allows me to figure out how many servings of what food groups I’m eating. From there, I was able to determine if I was eating the recommended daily servings and if I wasn’t I just changed my eating.
If you are new to dieting and don’t really know where to start, read my article on healthy eating startup tips. This article gives you step-by-step instructions on changing your diet to a healthier one.

If this sounds hard, trust me, it’s not at all! Just listen to your stomach and don’t eat when you’re NOT hungry. You just have to remember, your need and association with food as a comfort will slowly diminish over time when you do this consistently. Remember the keys here are CONSISTANCY and a little bit of DISCIPLINE. You don’t have to try overly hard honestly. It may be difficult to set up a nutritional plan on your own, but once you get it going and you understand what your body needs and doesn’t need, it gets easier and easier.

So just give it a go. You may even notice changes after the first week! I did, but if you don’t, please don’t get discouraged. Remember to check with your doctor about any new diets you’re trying out to make sure they are safe for you because everyone will react differently.

Just remember, pass it on

-YoYo

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