How To Create A Healthy Diet Plan
There is no such thing as the perfect diet and healthy weight loss is all about losing weight safely and keeping it off permanently. We can often be tempted to use a quick fix solution to lose those extra pounds but these quick weight loss diets are seldom diets are normally not balanced diets and are only intended to be used for a week at the most.
A healthy diet plan does not mean severely limiting the nutrition you need, dropping calorie intake below a healthy level or exercising to the point of exhaustion. Taking weight off slowly results in long term weight loss success. It is important to know what you are doing so that you can give your body all the nutritional goodness and help it needs. Here are 5 useful steps to follow for healthy weight loss.
1. Look At Your Lifestyle
To encourage healthy weight loss for your body you must first look at your lifestyle habits. An easy way to do this is to keep a food journal for one week and record everything you eat. Remember that you do have to be honest with yourself! At the end of the week take a look at your food choices and see if you’re eating too many unhealthy items.
2. Are You Eating Too Much Processed Food?
On your list that you made, you might notice that you’re eating a lot of processed foods. Processed foods are those that come in a box, can, bag or carton and often modified to extend shelf life leading to little or nutritional value. When you eat foods that are as natural as possible, you allow your body to get the most of the nutrients in it. Add a piece of fresh fruit to your breakfast and make sure you eat at least one vegetable serving at dinner time.
3. What Are You Drinking?
Consuming excessive amounts of carbonated drinks is one of the biggest reasons for gaining weight today. The best option for a healthy weight loss programme is to drink lots of water which you can flavour with lemon if you like. Avoid drinking high-calorie sports drinks or fruit juices. Monitor your alcohol intake to, as it is very high in calories.
4. Are Your Portion Sizes Too Big?
If you can’t identify any particular unhealthy items, then look at your portion sizes. Maybe you are eating in a healthy way but are just consuming way too many calories. If this is the case, an easy way to cut down is to eat from a smaller plate. It will help you keep portion sizes in check and trick your mind into thinking you are eating much more than you actually are.
5. What Is Your Exercise Routine?
A sedentary lifestyle means that your body is unable to burn off enough calories each day. A healthy weight loss plan needs to include some exercise because being more active will make a big impact to your weight. You don’t have to go to the gym everyday. Simple things like parking a little further from work, getting off public transport one stop early or taking the stairs and not the elevator can make all the difference.
IS YOUR HEALTHY DIET PLAN REALLY THAT HEALTHY?
The best way towards healthy weight loss is by eating natural, fresh foods along with a moderate amount of exercise. Many of foods that say that they are fine to eat as part of a healthy weight loss diet plan are actually causing more problems than they solve.
Take a hard look at your diet and workout plan as well as your calorie-tracking system to ensure everything is on the right track. Take advantage of apps like My Food Diary. This highly-acclaimed food database contains over 100,000 foods to improve your diet and the exercise log can calculate calories burned for over 700 activities to help you achieve your weight loss goal.
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