Numerous studies have linked table sugar to increased calorie consumption. While sugar doesn’t do as much dietary damage as fat, you’ll find that when you eat sweets, you simply want to eat more… of everything. Not only that, but sugar also makes your body excrete chromium, and chromium is a mineral that helps your body build calorie-burning lean tissue – so you want to keep your chromium levels up.
A diet should be approached almost like a training regime for a major sporting event. You can just pick up a book and follow it, but investing a little more time and preparation into your diet, what you’re going to eat and what you’re going to achieve will pay dividends in the end.
The first thing you should do is identify any food triggers you have. People rarely eat due to hunger and hunger alone, so try and figure out what circumstances, situations or events are more likely to make you reach for the biscuit tin. Classic comfort eating is a good start, but also look at social interaction and if you eat more or less after a busy day at work. You need to learn your eating patterns, which may sound odd, but few people are actually fully aware of why and when they eat on a long-term basis.
The easiest way to do this is to keep a food diary for at least a fortnight – a month is better – prior to starting any dietary regime. Write down the time of day you ate, what you ate, how you were feeling at the time and if you were hungry. Keep this as precise as possible with as much information as possible – after a couple of weeks, you should begin to see a pattern to your eating. You’ll probably find that you eat higher fat food when you’re tired or smaller portions when you’re in a rush, but the key thing is to identify behavior unique to you.
Armed with this information, you can plan a diet properly. If you’ve found you go for the quickest option when you’re tired, you can prepare a low-fat meal in advance which is ready when you need it. You can also identify ‘danger points’, such as social occasions, and while you don’t need to stop going out, just being aware that you’re likely to eat more while socializing gives you power to control it, such as by cutting down on food during the day or eating within moderation while out.
And remember to note down everything you drink as well, particularly alcohol. With this information, you can tailor a diet to suit you and help ensure success.
You’re not going to lose the weight alone, even if you ARE alone in losing the weight. If you’ve got a family at home, talk to them about it – initially, not incessantly. Let them know what you’re going to do, and that you want (and need) their support. If you don’t let them know, you’re running the risk of them inadvertently sabotaging your efforts. You want them to help you get to your goal(s). You want them to share in your happiness when you’ve made it past a certain mark. Who knows? Maybe some of your new habits will rub off on them and they’ll become healthier people as well.
Good luck
