You can imagine how difficult it is for a fitness professional to speak or work with people who are frustrated at their inability to lose weight but whom also seem to refuse to give up junk food altogether! In fact, most people who are “attempting” to lose weight typically have a house filled with junk foods – instead of unprocessed natural foods.
So, how can you expect to truly lose any weight at all if you have candies, sugary cereals, cakes, chips, soda, and syrupy juices in your home? The most common reason for people keeping a few guilty pleasures about the abode always strikes me more as the rationalization of an addict: people want something fun on the side so they can ‘live a little.’ But are you living or dying?
The truth of the matter is that if you could force yourself to stick to healthy foods, you’d notice before long that you are actually feeling better and more energetic. And eating healthy means developing a better-looking body which, of course, increases your confidence. So how are you ‘living a little’ by clinging to unhealthy snacks, exactly?
What needs to be made painfully clear is this: Eating healthy does not mean eating bland, boring food! Actually, when you learn to enjoy all-natural meals and explore the seemingly endless variety of healthy foods, you’ll quickly discover just how many exciting flavors the world has to offer. Eventually, you’ll become used to the planet’s intended flavors and find the more aggressive, salty or sweet junk foods overbearing.
Take, for example, what happened with a friend of mine just the other day: While on the road, he wanted an unsweetened iced tea, but all that happened to be available were bottles of commercially-sold iced teas. He hadn’t drunk one in years, and almost gagged because it was so unnaturally sweet – his body could identify that it was heavily produced.
Similarly, I used to take a lot of sugar in my coffee, but after slowly reducing the amount over time, I don’t like any sugar in my coffee at all. With time, you can come to appreciate such natural flavors and reject the artificial additives that we have been conditioned from a young age to accept as normal.
So, while my belief is that every individual ought to be able to enjoy what he or she eats, I’m also confident that you can do this without having to consume the heavily-processed, name-brand foodstuffs that appear in some supermarkets, quick-stops, and fast-food restaurants across the country.
Here are a few examples of how you can replace normal stacks with healthier alternatives that are also delicious:
Chocolate: Instead of eating a candy bar, a donut, or a piece of chocolate cake, consider picking up a couple of pieces of extra-dark chocolate – something with a cocoa content that’s a bit higher than 70%. Dark chocolate is higher in fiber, and has far less sugar than milk chocolate.
Chicken: Replace deep-fried chicken or breaded chicken with grilled chicken breast strips with a peanut dipping sauce. Get rid of the fries, too! Try vegetables on the side instead.
Hamburgers: Get rid of the fast-food burger with its refined white bun with a burger made from grass-fed cows – and the same goes for the cheese on it!
The list goes on and on! It’s easy to maintain a healthy diet once you get rolling. And while it does take a little effort at first, you’ll look back and feel silly for all the time you spent trying to lose weight while eating food that was terrible for you. There is more to life than eating junk food, and you’ll actually discover more of life once you stop eating junk food!
Mike Geary, CPT, CNS, is the author of the internationally Best-Selling Abs program, The Truth About Abs, with readers in 150+ countries. Learn how to lose weight and get a flat stomach and visit his website now.
