Here are a few notes on ways to keep weight off or losing weight. Add some more in the comments!
Bad Cycles start and stop at the same rate as Good Cycles.
We are all pretty self aware when it comes to how fast a bad health cycle can start. One cigarette will lead to more cigarettes, which lead to wanting sugar….One drink to more drinks to bad food choices. That donut in the morning makes you crave fast food by noon. Some times just the thought of how easy a bad cycle can start is overwhelming.
But have you ever considered how easy it is to start a good cycle?
What you don’t have, you don’t crave. Its pretty much that simple. And your body will shift into a good cycle in relatively short order. If you are used to having a donut or bagel or cerial for breakfast, just skip it one morning. We are compelled to think this will only make us hungrier by lunch, but its quite the opposite. The reality is you won’t be near as hungry and the hunger you do have will be for dense protein, like chicken, eggs or steak. Carbs lead to more carb cravings. I tend to eat my carbs at the end of the day rather than at the beginning because I prefer to keep my appetite in check throughout the day. And by the end of the day when I do finally eat carbs, I don’t eat crazy processed ones because I am simply not hungry for them.
Caffeine may be making things worse.
Caffeine finds itself in this odd place of controversy between good and evil of health. Many feel it contains antioxidants which make it healthy. Others feel it staves off depression. The thing is, there is something called confounding variables which make it almost implausable to make any assertions at all. Is it bad? Probably not completely. Is it good? No. It just is. But none of that really matters because what coffee can do is cause other cravings. Coffee tends to draw an insulin response and will surely lead to later cravings for sugar and processed carbs, or even alcohol and cigarettes if that’s your thing. Just because while drinking coffee you may feel an appetite suppression doesn’t mean that later on you aren’t going to experience massive cravings.
I go through cycles with coffee. I enjoy black coffee with grassfed butter and coconut oil. But I know for fact that when I am in a coffee cycle I also start to eat worse and drink more alcohol. I find that it dramatically increases cravings later in the day. Its a personal experience but one worth looking into if you are having trouble losing or maintaining weight.
Stop believing you have to eat all the time.
We live in a society that has way too many time allotments for eating. There is breakfast, brunch, dinner, sports games, holiday parties, just going to Starbucks for no reason. Its convinced us that should we not eat for more than 3 hours, we will die. But the opposite is true. I think breakfast may well be the worst offender of all. Eating any type of carb at breakfast is pretty much a waste. Why get the blood sugar game going so early? You can eat, but choose fats or proteins. You will feel a lot better, burn more fat, and control your appetite. You won’t die if you skip lunch. The human body doesn’t need to be eating all the time in order to survive.
Stop doing cardio.
Oh man, you aren’t going to like this, but long runs and aerobics and treadmills are really a waste of time. Not only do they consume a ton of time, but they don’t really have the effect you think they would. They can store fat because it is a signal to the body that there is trouble. Think about it, do you think the human body is meant to run a marathon? Nope. The human body is meant to sprint. Or lift heavy objects. If you are doing a treadmill or jogging long distances and feel you aren’t seeing results, then switch up to anaerobic workouts.
Run sprints if you are healthy enough to do so. I am talking like 5 20 yard sprints. Google sprint workouts.
Do weights. Short heavier weight workouts get a lot more fat burned than a repetitive treadmill.
Take Jiu Jitsu. Do yoga. Play basketball. Do pushups and sit ups. You don’t even need a gym for many things.
Learn to fill your time slots differently.
Are you used to eating snacks at night?
Well when you stop, there will be dead time. That dead time can cause you to feel cagey and want to eat snacks. So change up how you handle your time. If you are used to watching TV, maybe find something else to do? Take a course online and learn a new language, get a gym membership, call a friend, etc. Just fill the time with something else so you aren’t sitting around thinking about snacking.
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