We often eat simply because food is available. One of the best things we can do for our weight loss goals is to keep the candy jar off the desk.
As an avid believer in scrapping most diet plans, because of the lack of essential nutrients and minerals that inevitably occurs when we restrict our diets to just a single food group or diet fad, it is just as important to learn to recognize that we often eat when we are not hungry. Believe it or not, but that office jar of mini-Snickers is responsible for 5 lbs. of extra weight per year; its mere presence tickles our natural propensity towards nourishment, which can be triggered by emotional cues as well as actual hunger. Simply put, if food is available, we have a strong tendency to eat it!
The first and possibly biggest step we can take towards our weight-loss or weight-maintenance goals is to simply bring to the table we need to eat. The extra platters of richly-hued and vibrant foods at dinner, even if you’ve made enough for 5 for a dinner of 3, will be eaten. Chalk up our reticence to neither leave no stone unturned nor spoonful un-lifted to our caveman days, when the next meal was by no means guaranteed; so you’d better eat all that was put before you. In those times, obtaining food was the greatest drainer of energy and resources during the day; today, it is the least. Unfortunately, our bodies have been slow to react to the change and we store calories as efficiently as ever. Combining the extra calories we are sure to eat when food is available, with our lack of physical exertion and efficiency at storing calories leads to the result we have before us today: the most obese version of humanity that’s likely ever existed. Keeping food out of reach is a crucial element of dulling our brain’s reaction to the visual cues of a (overly) hearty meal.
Snacks in-between meals are a must-go, even if you are substituting them for meals. Simply; they are not usually nutritious (hence the name). Grabbing a quick Hostess cake from the office vending machine during a busy day does more harm than good, unless you are quite hungry; even so, you’ve got to plan better to avoid this situation. There is simply no way such a busy person can expect to burn off those extra calories with an hour of jogging every day she eats one; additionally, such foods, though high in calories, are nutritionally atrocious, so your body isn’t getting any vitamins and minerals for its myriad of essential functions. Better to get to lunchtime and eat your cake as a dessert, if you must. Then, at least, all that’s left is to fight are the extra calories.
In sum, snacks after breakfast, lunch or dinner aren’t so bad, especially if you are a committed exerciser amenable to moderate weight-lifting and not just aerobics; that lean muscle mass will burn calories for you even when you are sitting still or sleeping. But snacks in place of these meals, or in-between, are no good at all, so stay away from them.
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