Per research published in the American Journal of Medicine (and corroborated by pretty much every major-medical organization and news outlet all over the US – in the rest of the world, for that matter), we as human beings are getting heavier and heavier, and it’s quite literally threatening our lives.
Today, eight out of every 10 Americans over the age of 25 can be considered clinically obese. This number shocks most of us, but I am sure that if he went out in public and started counting a number of people that look like they haven’t seen the inside of a gym or eating a salad in six months, or so you begin to understand just how realistic this number is.
We are literally digging our own graves with our teeth and sitting on our backsides doing absolutely nothing about it!
Of course, that doesn’t stop the weight loss industry (powered by a tremendous amount of modern-day snake oil salesman pushing products designed only to lighten your wallet) from promising you the moon and the stars with their next weight loss gizmo, gadget, or potion.
You take the “quick fix,” discover that it isn’t anywhere near as effective as you were led to believe it to be, and then allow the cycle to rinse and repeat.
But it doesn’t have to be like that – not anymore.
By taking control of your diet and your exercise habits and leveraging all the 10 healthy eating tips we must outline for you below you’ll go to be able to completely transform your body, your health, and the way you feel.
Better than that, you’ll be able to do All of that almost overnight! Just utilize the inside information we break down for you below, and you will be off to the races.
Trim Your Waist by Cutting Back on Portion Sizes
One of the fastest ways you can really take control of your diet is to cut back on the size of portions you eat every single day at every single meal, even if you don’t give up any of the foods that you are eating that may be contributing to a ballooning waistline.
You see, everything in moderation really is the way to go. But too many of us end up overindulging in foods that have a negative impact on our body, chowing down on oversized portions at every meal. By cutting back on our intake, we can slim ourselves down overnight, without making any other changes whatsoever.
Hit the Brakes on Grazing
The odds are good that if you are carrying around any more than 20 extra pounds that you are a “grazer,” reaching for snacks all throughout the day even when you aren’t necessarily hungry.
Some people call this emotional eating, some people call this picking and pecking, but at the end of the day it all means the exact same thing – reaching for food when you don’t actually need it and adding a tremendous amount of extra calories to your daily intake that has a disastrous impact on your weight and your health.
Most of us would all agree that we don’t think we overeat, and many of us that have tried to change our diets in the past were shocked to discover that they had failed even though we followed the program as closely to the letter as we thought we could.
But most of us don’t really “count” that a little sneak handful of grapes, almonds, or peanuts we pop down just because we are bored, and most of us don’t really “count” that can or two of soda we had when we were thirsty.
The grazing that we do all throughout the day is what sets us back from our weight loss goals, and can have a disastrous impact on our overall wellness. Cut it out immediately, and you’ll be good to go!
Drink More Water!
Most people have absolutely no idea that they are walking around every single day in a state of dehydration, crippling their mental abilities, their bodies ability to regulate itself properly, and forcing themselves to balloon in weight because of all the sugary drinks they are replacing their water intake with. This is a dangerous, dangerous approach.
By simply swapping out all your beverages with good old-fashioned water and trying to get at least 8 cups of water into your body on a regular basis you’ll be able to flood yourself with life-saving fluids that improve the smooth operation of all your bodily systems while also elevating your metabolism at the same time.
It doesn’t get much better than that!
Build Your Meals from Every Food Group
Though the popular “food pyramid” has gone under fire in recent years because it isn’t exactly a complete picture of optimal health and nutrition, it is still a fantastic place to start when you’re looking to find ways to change your body, increase your wellness, and support your health and well-being.
Too many of us fall into routines as far as what we eat on a regular basis is concerned, not even realizing that we are putting ourselves in some sticky situations because of it. We continue to overindulge on salty snacks or sugary sweets while forgetting entirely about healthy fruits and vegetables as well as whole grains and fiber that can support a healthy body. Do not continue to make these kinds of mistakes!
You need to be sure that you are implementing meal plans that take from as many different food groups as possible, laying down a rock solid foundation of fruits, vegetables, and healthy proteins with just a sprinkling of the “bad” food groups to elevate the taste. You’ll become healthier almost overnight with this kind of approach!
Kill Your Cravings with Healthy Snacks
Look, the truth of the matter is that salty, fatty, and sugary foods all create a literal biochemical reaction in the human body that isn’t all that much different from the addictive substances in cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs – and that’s why we all have such a tough time giving up on these kinds of foods even though we know that it’s something that we should be doing.
Understanding this right off the bat allows you to recognize that you’re going to have some significant cravings when you make smart changes to your healthy diet, and if you know this is going into your new diet program you’ll be able to plan and neutralize those cravings as much as possible.
By finding healthy snacks that you can indulge in whenever you have an unhealthy craving, you’ll be able to enjoy a treat every now and again without having to derail your approach to much healthier eating.
Flood Your Daily Intake with Plenty of Fruits and Veggies
There are plenty of fad diets out there that promise you stunning results by giving up one specific type of food altogether or prioritizing one specific type of food over all others, the truth of the matter is that you want to inject as much variety into your daily intake as possible while focusing predominantly on fruits and vegetables.
The human body evolved over thousands and thousands of years to become the optimal biological machine it is today, and a lot of that evolution revolved around fruits and vegetables – not grains and a tremendous amount of protein.
By eating more foods that are green and colorful you’re going to be able to dial back into the kinds of foods that your ancient ancestors ate, and when you do that, you’re going to be giving your body everything it needs and everything it is craving.
Fruits and veggies also happen to be low in calories but high as far as feeling full is concerned, allowing you to keep your portions low without feeling hungry and without pushing too many calories into your body all at the exact same time.
This is the way to recharge your body, replenish your energy stores, and lose a tremendous amount of weight along the way.
Don’t Skip Meals
One of the biggest issues a lot of people have when it comes time to lose weight is believing that they can starve themselves skinny, never really understanding or appreciating the long-term health damage that they are doing to themselves in the process.
Yes, you can lose a tremendous amount of weight by skipping meals altogether – but at what cost to your overall long-term health and wellness? There’s a reason why sickly people look so thin, and a reason why you just don’t feel as energetic, as mentally strong, or as capable of when you have gone without food for extended amounts of time.
Some people have discovered that it’s possible to take advantage of “intermittent fasting” to speed up their rate of weight loss by only eating inside of a four-hour window of time every day and going without food completely outside of that window, but as far as giving them food altogether you put yourself in a really dangerous situation if you go in that direction.
Plan with Specific Cheat Meals and Cheat Days
If you give up on all your favorite foods and stick to abandoning them all together, you’ll eventually find that you don’t have the willpower to forget about those foods completely – and that’s usually when people run right off the rails and binge on foods that aren’t good for them at all.
But by appreciating the fact that you’ll eventually collapse and embrace that rather than pushing in a way you can plan for specific cheat meals throughout your month or specific cheat days that allow you to eat anything and everything you want – but only for that specific amount of time.
This lets you reward yourself for sticking to the program 99.99% of the time while also allowing you to enjoy your favorite foods without feeling like you’re sacrificing permanently. It also won’t run you off the rails completely when it comes to your health and wellness goals, so it’s a real win-win across the board!
Do not drink “empty calories.”
This really goes together with the tip above to drink a lot more water during your day, but it bears explaining a little bit more just because of how critically important it is for you moving forward.
You see, calories aren’t calories in a universal sense across the board. The calories that you consume from a banana aren’t the same as the calories than you consume from a can of soda, even if they end up “balancing out” from a numerical standpoint.
The calories in sugary drinks, sports drinks, soda pop, beer, and other beverages that aren’t just straight up water are as empty as can be with no real nutritional value whatsoever. This means they are going to contribute negatively to your overall health and wellness, and are also going to make losing weight a real uphill battle. Don’t drink empty calories!
Plan Your Meals a Week in Advance
It can be a real challenge to stick to your healthy eating habits when you are stressed out, tired, and just don’t feel like cooking or preparing a healthy meal, and that’s when we usually abandon ship and start eating foods that we really shouldn’t be eating.
By planning your meals out, a week in advance (and ideally preparing as many of them, or at least as many components of them as you can ahead of time) you were going to be able to stick to your healthy eating program a lot easier than you would have been able to otherwise.
It might take a little bit of extra effort upfront, but it will always pay off in the long run!
Closing Thoughts
There are lots and lots of different things you can do when it comes to improving your diet and your healthy eating habits in the list above merely only serves to scratch the surface.
At the same time, if you were to only focus on and implement all the tips and tricks we have outlined above you’d be in a much better position (look better, feel better, and lose weight faster) than at least 80% of the general population.
Wishing you the best of luck moving forward!
