Since I can remember, there has been some fad diet or guideline that was going to make us all thin as rails, and in this time obesity rates have increased. So what is it that we really need? Low Fat? High Protein? Low Carb? Low Calorie? I'll never forget seeing my mom chewing her meal according to a little timer she had on the table. There will always be some fad, but what it really comes down to is a lifestyle change. So here are some things that helped me.
#1 Exercise: Find a physical activity that you like to do, or one that has value to you. If you don't enjoy the activity or benefit from it in some way, you won't make it a habit. I don't recommend buying the latest exercise video or a treadmill simply becuase you will get bored with these items quickly and they will go unused. It is better to get a bike and ride it to work, join a softball league, or set asside time to play with the kids (really play, not supervise). This kind of exercise does two things. First it increases your metabolism which means that you will burn more calories, and second if gives you a period of time when you are activly doing something and less likely to snack out of boredom.
#2Meal timing
-Eat 5 small meals a day. Your body is designed to graze. Small complete meals will help keep your metabolism up and keep you less hungry
-Don't eat after 7PM - this time limit may change depending on your daily schedule, but in general you can consider that anything that you eat before you go to bed and anything you eat in the middle of the night will not be burned off in your sleep, but stored in the form of fat. It is easier and normal to fast while you sleep. If you feel you must have something, drink tea,water or diet soda.
#3 Food and Liquid
-Stay well hydrated- Often we eat when we are really thirsty. You will find that if you drink a lot of water, you will be less hungry. You should be peeing at least every two hours, and your urine should be clear
- Eat Whole foods- Look at your food labels. If it says "enriched" put it back. All "enriched" means is that is has been over processed and all the nutrients have been taken out, so they had to put some stuff back in so it would be considered food. Whole foods take longer for your body to process and thus will help you feel satisfied longer and give you more nutritional benefit. Keep in mind here that you don't have to go to that "everything here is organic" grocery store and spend nine million dollars. Just read the labels of what you but normally.
-Stay away from regular soda. There is no benefit to this stuff whatsoever. It is the liquid equivalent of eating sugar with a spoon.
-Understand Gatoraid- Many people see Gatoraid and other sports drinks as healthy, and drink them as the "healty alternative" to soda. Keep in mind that these drinks were designed to give you energy while exercising. If you are not exercising when you drink them you may as well be drinking soda. They are quickly and efficiently delivering energy to your system which you are not using so you will convert it to fat.
- Eat fruits and vegetables. - You will always see the ads on tv trying to convince you to serve a vegetable platter instead of chips at a ball game, and deep down everyone knows it ain't gonna happen. Keep this in mind however. Your taste is largely determined by what you feed yourself. If you make a conscious effort to slowly change what you eat you will find that you start liking the new stuff and disliking the old stuff. That is just the way your body works. Slowly start removing chips, cookies and other useless stuff and add healthy altenatives. You don't like it now, but you will. Eat something green at every meal.
- Eat fat and oil - The problem with the low fat diets is that what you substituted were carbs. Carbs burn faster that fats and are easier to process than fats. This means that you quickly liberate all the energy from the food and are hungry again even if you haven't used the energy. A diet that contains a reasonable about to unsaturated fat will take longer for your body to process, leave you feeling less hungry and give you longer lasting energy.
You will hear people give you the advise "eating less calories than you burn will make you lose weight every time". These people are right, but it is a simplistic view. If you eat a Snickers, and then get on the treadmill until you have burned all the calories in the Snickers plus a couple, you will lose weight, but you will also be very hungry. If on the other hand you eat a more balanced meal, you can have a lot more food with the same calories. You body will be able to process this fuel over a period of time without spikes in energy consumption.
In short, changing how you eat, what you eat, and what you do with the energy from your food will keep you healthier and keep your weight in check. But I will warn you, don't try all these changes all at once. You will get very frustrated with it and quit. Pick one or two things and do them until they are habits, and then tackle another couple. For example you might start this month by haveing a full glass of water before every meal, and eating something green (M&M's don't count) at every meal. At the end of the month you will probably feel satisfied with slightly less food even if you don't realize it. If you were to add one new healthy habit each month for a year, you would find that the next year is much better for you in a lot of ways.
There is one more recommendation that no one will follow, but everyone should that will make you much healther mentally and physically. Stop paying your cable bill. Trust me, if you drop down to having 3 channels on your TV you will watch it less, and it is not worth my time explaining how this will effect your health. You know it will, you just won't admit it.