Switching to a healthy diet is a change that you MUST do if you want to lost weight. The simple fact remains, trying to lose weight without dieting is like driving a car without fuel. In both situations you will not get anywhere.
However, no one said you have to suffer. Unfortunately, when it comes to healthy food, there are a lot of misconceptions. In this article we discuss these misconceptions and learn how you can make the switch while at the same time enjoy your food.
Healthy food SUCKS!
Unfortunately, when most people think of healthy food, they envision that white gooey thing they serve in hospitals, that tasteless odorless thing they feed us while we r still under the mids. Well, let me just clarify something here, hospital food IS healthy, but that’s not the healthy food I am talking about here.
Hospital food is specifically made for their patients. It is designed to meet certain and specific, and most importantly temporary dietary needs. That is why it is tasteless, odorless, and sometimes even colorless. However, when you are trying to lose weight, you don’t have to eat that food.
So, what is the healthy food you are talking about?
As we said before, Good diet requires three rights. You must consume the right food, consume the right amount of food, and utilize the right eating habits. Skipping any of these rights, and your efforts will be greatly hampered, if not void.
This basically means that you need to change your current eating habits, both in content and amount to make your food healthy, that’s all. Right now, I eat chicken, beef, fish, rice, cheese, milk, pasta, bread, burgers (ok I will admit it, and sometimes fries), pizza, and even ice cream & chocolates.
But, I am still eating healthy food. How is that possible? Well, I made some changes to the ingredients, the cooking methods, meal portions, and modified my heating habits, here is how.
I eat mainly white meat (seafood or chicken) with brown rice, i eat other meat but not as often. I eat low (or even zero) fat dairy products, whole grain pasta. My burgers do not contain mayo. My Pizza does not contain cheese (Italian Style). and once in a while, I eat low fat ice cream and chocolates. Finally, my fries are homemade, cut from fresh potatoes and fried in sunflower oil, and only once a month.
Well .... your healthy food STILL sucks !!
OK I’ll admit it, changes in ingredients will change the taste of food. When the taste changes, you no longer “enjoy” the food, and here is the problem. You will crave for the “old food”, because you just want to recapture that “Joy” feeling it gave you ..... now, here is some ugly truth about Joy..
“Joy” is all in your head
When you eat something delicious, your body releases a chemical called endorphins into your brain. This chemical - among other things – is responsible for the joy feeling you get. You can get endorphins for many other activities, drugs, sex, playing video games, and even eating chocolates. So, in reality, you don’t crave the food, you crave the endorphins.
This simply means, if you could teach your body to release the same endorphins when eating healthy food, then you could teach yourself to enjoy the food after u made some changes to ingredients
OK great, but how can I do that?
Well, exactly the same way you taught yourself to enjoy unhealthy food. I know this sound weird, but hear me out.
Let’s take tea as an example, some people like it with extra sugar and milk, while others enjoy it with little sugar and no milk. So what happened there?, it’s the same three ingredients. Why different people like it differently? The answer is Conditioning.
Let’s consider Joe, he likes his tea with lots of sugar and milk, whereas Samantha, enjoys her tea with little sugar and no milk. So, in this case, if Joe drinks tea the way Sam likes it, he would not enjoy it, that’s because his brain has been conditioned to release the endorphins ONLY when there are lots of milk and sugar in his tea. So how can he teach himself to enjoy Sam’s recipe?
The answer is: Gradual change and Persistence (remember making an effort?)
Yes, it’s that simple. All Joe has to do is gradually change his recipe to match Sam’s. This means he gradually reduces the amount of sugar and milk in his tea, to the point where milk is completely removed and sugar is greatly reduced.
During this time, he might not enjoy his tea 100%, but at least SOME joy would be there .... he would be conditioning his brain to release the endorphins, eventually his brain would be "reprogrammed" until his recipe completely matches Sam’s recipe.
Do I have to go gradual, can I just make the switch in one shot?
Yes you can, going gradually is a technique to help you bear the change in taste. But if you can MANAGE it, then it should take lesser time to condition your brain. However, it will cause a lot of mental pain. You might struggle with food taste, and you would greatly crave for the old food. So, unless you are confident about your mental strength, do not try to make a sudden switch.
Junk food is addictive, just like drugs.
Junk food IS just like drugs. When you consume Junk food (or drugs), your brain releases LOTS of endorphins. But after sometime, the effect wears out, so in order to get the same “kick” you end up wanting to consume more and more. That’s why the more junk food you consume, the more you would want to consume.
This was scientifically proven in the latest research, you can find plenty on this in the web .... just google "junk food is addictive research" and u will find plenty.
BUT, Just like drugs, you can Detox out of Junk food.
Yes, here is my experience. I used to eat fast food 3 times a week, with lots of chocolates every night, and ice cream was on daily bases. It reached a point that I could not sleep or work unless I get my dose of junk food. I tried to stop many times, but I always craved.
Now, all of that is no more. I seldom go to a fast food joint, and if I do, then my order has changed dramatically. I don’t eat at night at all, let alone chocolates. I eat ice cream once in a blue moon. But most of all, I am happy and enjoy my food very much, that’s because ….
Endorphins can come from other sources, not just from food.
This is important. We don’t crave the food, we only crave the endorphins. So, if you could trick your body to release the endorphins from something else, wouldn’t that be great?, and the answer is YES.
Remember how great you feel when you achieve something, when you complete a task, when you play a game, even when you watch a movie. In ALL of these situations, is the endorphins that make you happy. So, other than food, try any of these situations and you will get your dose of endorphins.
Here is what worked for me, every time I completed a workout session, I always felt great. That sense of accomplishment and achievement always makes me proud of myself and happy to the most. That’s when the endorphins are released. So yes, it’s not just food. It’s everything else as well.
But remember, too much of a good thing is also bad
Ok, here is another common mistake many people make when dieting. The make the switch to healthy food, but they continue to eat a lot of good food.
As discussed earlier, starving yourself triggers the starvation mode. To be exact, if you don’t eat anything within 3 hours your body will go to starvation. Hopefully now you can see why 3 meals a day is NOT a good system for weight loss.
That’s because you would go at least 6 hours between meals. It’s even worse if you skip lunch. In fact, in the traditional 3 meals a day system, you are actually triggering the starvation mode EVERYDAY.
That’s not all, there are actually many more bad habits, like eating late at night, pinging, and a lot more. So, modifying your eating habits, meal times, meal size, etc. is a very important step that you need to do in order maximize your success.
Ok, let’s summarize
A good diet involves three rights; Consuming the right amount of the right food, at the right eating habits. When Operation Re-burn commences (really soon) we will tackle these issues and hopefully make the proper transformation from your current eating habits to right ones.
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