For many of us deciding to go on a diet can seem to add a complication to our life. Scheduling in an exercise routine may seem to make matters worse. However, watch out because though the kids, the house, and work all involve being active, they don't necessarily imply weight loss, and it's important to organize your time so that you can make the best choices possible.
In fact, this hectic lifestyle tends to be a complex balancing act in which life's pressures often cause us to make poor nutrition choices--a hamburger or a bagel on the go, for example--instead of taking the time to prepare healthy meals low in calories.
Should our achievements and goals such as pregnancy, our first year in college, or a job promotion mean gaining extra pounds?
Definitely not. Don't let yourself be defeated. You don't need to look for easy shortcuts. Be patient because extra pounds don't just magically disappear after the first day of dieting. You have to set reachable goals.
In order to do this, it's essential to brush aside the myths that can seem to put obstacles in your path. According to the Johns Hopkins University Guide, some of the most well-known myths are:
Diuretics and laxatives help when dieting.Our blood has the perfect balance of salts such as sodium, calcium, and potassium, and each of these substances must be present in proportionate amounts in order to ensure that the heart and muscles work in a rhythmic fashion. Any product that generates violent liquid losses alters this delicate balance and affects the body without even taking away half a pound.
Not eating is the key.Today the trend is exactly the opposite of what it was two decades ago: you should eat every two to three hours so you produce changes to your metabolism and provide your body with nutrients.
You can eat only lettuce.One of the major failures of old-fashioned diets is that they drastically limited the number of foods you could consume which, among other things, resulted in boredom and made it easy to give up on dieting. Today, one of the keys to successful weight loss is the diversity of foods that can be consumed.
You have to say goodbye to bread. It was always considered to be the number one enemy of dieting. However, bread is healthy and its calorie content is not too high. The best kinds are whole-grain bread or white bread with fiber, which contain vitamins and minerals and are digested slowly. Nowadays, eating bread instead of crackers is recommended not only because it takes longer to digest, but also because it gives you a greater feeling of satisfaction and provides less fat, especially trans fat.
You have to avoid pasta. Just like bread, cereals, legumes, and vegetables, pasta is found in the first level of the nutrition pyramid; therefore, it must form a part of our diets. When it comes to losing weight, choose thick pastas (bowties, penne rigati, rotini) and cook them "al dente."
Although it's been repeated a million times, choosing a variety of healthy foods in proper amounts, combined with physical exercise, is still the most successful formula for losing weight.
