Make "This Time" the LAST Time

We all start the first day of our diet the same. We get up and follow whatever fad diet or plan to an exact "T". No sugar, No fried food, No alcohol, No salt, No carbs, No meat, No fat, basically NO ANYTHING. But with all of these rules and restrictions how can we think that any progress is going to come. They (and don't ask me who "they" is) say that 95 percent of all dieters gain their weight back within three years. This statistic bothers me, you're telling me that I go 6 months of my life living in the land of "No's" just to gain all that weight back? The only no I can say after that is HELL NO! This is why i believe diets don't work. Instead you have to change your whole lifestyle, get to a point where your everyday routine is to get up and make healthier choices without even trying or thinking about it. Now I know what you're thinking "okay, nice point but how?".

Implement small changes into your everyday routine and don't try and do too much, too quick. Or as I like to say "Do the Most". You want this to be a lifestyle change and not a quick diet that you will end up quitting. So this is why I have my "Every Two Add Two" plan. Basically what this is, is every two weeks pick two healthier changes that you can implement into your everyday routine. Keep adding new things and before long you'll notice that all of those bad habits have been replaced with good ones. Though those first two weeks may be difficult I promise you the results you see will be motivation alone. He are some examples of some healthier changes you can make.

1. Increasing/ONLY Drinking Water

I found that when I increased my water my skin got better, and I wasn't bloated. Your body holds on to water when you're not hydrated (bloating) so its important to drink a lot of it. I drank a gallon of water a day for a month, and I know that's "doing the most" but it really changed my body. If you're having trouble drinking your water try adding lemon or lime, I keep a small bottle of lime juice in my purse to help me keep drinking.

2. Having Fruits and Vegetables in every meal

Before starting my lifestyle change, I would go days without eating any real fruits or vegetables. I would always wonder why my skin was never clear and why I was always tired all the time. Come to find out it was because I wasn't getting my daily intake of fruits and vegetables. Now it's pretty obvious why we need fruits and vegetables in our diet, so I won't go too much into now (I'll save that for a later post). If your're not use to eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, then explore and figure out what works for you. Personally I have to eat my fruit cold, so I just buy a big bag of frozen fruit from the grocery store. I get the tropical blend that has pineapple, mango, papaya, and strawberries it's around 10 bucks, already cut up and its cold. I put some in a container and take it to work for my breakfast everyday. It lasts me about a week and a half and I'll even eat some as a late night snack.

3. Cutting out Fried Food

So this can be hard, my boyfriend loves fried shrimp so I was frying shrimp and fish at least once a week, but when you learn how bad fried food is for you, it becomes easier to let it go. I'm no expert but basically when food is fried at such a high temperature it causes the cells in the food to create free radicals and free radicals attack the healthy cells in your body and over time can lead to harmful results. Now that's the short Antoinette version so I would recommend doing your own research, but nothing good comes from fried food ESPECIALLY fried food you eat out. They reuse that oil over and over again and it's just not good for you. Now I understand its easy to get something fried when you're out especially if you're busy so try substituting your fries with a side salad.

4. Planning out your Meals

For the first month I meal prepped all my lunches and knew what I was eating for every meal that day. Doing that prevented me from getting hungry and just eating anything I could find. You should always know what your next meal is going to be. This includes snacks. You should be eating pretty frequently through out the day and if you ever feel hungry EAT. Starving yourself and skipping meals isn't going to make you lose weight it's going to make your body go into starvation mode and hold on to the fat instead of burning it. This is why planning out your meals is so important. If you always have healthy options ready, when you're hungry you wont mess up and go through a drive through or eat something bad.

Too many times when it comes to weight loss, we are worried about someone else's results and what they are doing. Forget about them and focus on you! Hopefully this helped someone start their lifestyle change, leave comments and be sure share my post and follow me on my Social Networks.