It’s Not A Trick To Have A Treat When You’re Trying To Lose Weight

One of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to lose weight is that they attempt to give up their favorite foods completely. However, by depriving themselves in this way, it often has the opposite effect and instead of eating healthier, they begin to crave the foods they can’t have which results in binging.

You don’t need to give up your favorite foods when you’re trying to lose weight – you just need to know how to strike a healthy balance between treats and clean eating.

Why Eating Your Favorite Foods Helps When You’re Trying To Lose Weight

The concept of forbidden foods increases your desire for these foods and leads to a mindset where you start to resent your healthy eating habits because they’re preventing you from eating the foods you like. Ultimately, this combination of resentment and desire leads to you breaking your healthy eating habits, excessively binging on your favorite foods and undoing all the progress you’ve made as a result of eating healthy.

When you’re trying to lose weight if you allow yourself to eat your favorite foods in moderation, you remove the forbidden element and instead of resenting your healthy eating habits, you’ll start to embrace them. As a result, you’ll enjoy your favorite foods when you do get to eat them but you’ll also appreciate the fact that consuming them in moderation is helping you lose weight and this will make you much less likely to binge. Remember that not eating to lose weight will not help your body in any way and will only harm you in the long run.

How To Effectively Balance Healthy Eating Habits And Your Favorite Foods

The best way to get a good balance between healthy eating and your favorite foods is to apply an 80/20 rule. This means you eat healthy 80% of the time and allow yourself to eat whatever you want 20% of the time. When spread across the week, this means you can have four meals per week where you can eat anything you want.

However, this doesn’t mean you have to eat foods you don’t like the rest of the time and if you get a little creative, you can come up with healthy variations of your favorite treats that are low in calories and can be eaten at any time during the week. For example, if you’re a fan of burgers, there are plenty of healthy and natural burger recipes out there which are just as good for you as lean meats. Alternatively, chocolate covered fruits are a great substitute for candy bars which contain fewer calories and take just minutes to prepare.

How To Stick With Your Weight Loss And Fitness Resolutions

Almost everyone has done it at one time or another. Many people do it every year around New Years. Yes, it’s making a resolution, a promise to ourselves that we are going to do something different than we have done in the past. But unfortunately, by the end of the first week, a full 25% have given up and gone back to their pre-resolution ways. After six months, only 46% are still working on their resolution. Most of those left will not last out the year.

However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Download my free report, How To Stick With Your Fitness Resolutions to help you keep to your weight loss and fitness promise to yourself.