Reform Your Relationship with Food by Amber Trapassi

You have to live with your diet. Much like a bad relationship, people try to live with a diet that just isn’t agreeing with them. You should love what you eat. What I’ve learned is that you can come to love eating healthy. Try to stay away from using fad diets as they are not an effective way of losing weight in the long term. It’s a fact; they may have an effect in the short term (ie. days to weeks) by promoting very quick, often dramatic weight loss. However, as soon as the person tries to eat a normal diet the weight will be re-gained. A lot of these diets encourage unhealthy, and often strange eating behaviors which cannot be sustained in the long-term, and may even put the person in danger.

When my friends ask me, “Don’t you ever just want to splurge and eat normal?” I tell them “this is my normal”.  I happen to love my diet and the way it makes me feel. Any diet plan that starves you, or is nutritionally deficient is bad. It’s important to feed your body!! By not eating you are doing worse to your body. It’s like putting bad gas in your car. It’s going to not run so well. But if you put in the top grade gas, then it will run great!

There is the three containers philosophy. You have three containers: muscle, fat, and carbs. Your body will go to carbs for energy first, then to fat, and last to muscles. If you limit your carbs you tap into your fat reserves. You need to balance though. If you cut carbs, your fat jug will empty and your body will move to the last jug, muscle, for energy.

A few general ground rules:

32 minutes of cardio before breakfast puts you in immediate fat burn mode. It takes about 2 minutes to get your heart rate up.

Sugar is the enemy!!

Healthy fats are your friend; in moderation.

No carbs after 7 p.m., except vegetables. Any snacking must be a protein source. A good snack would be cottage cheese or plain Greek yogurt. You can add flavor like honey, or cinnamon with Truvia ( a natural sweetener).

Eat a protein source every three hours. It will keep your metabolism moving so you lean out and build muscle.

So, the first thing to remember if you’re trying to reform your relationship with food is that it’s NOT going to happen overnight. It’s not a miracle, it’s a process. You have to make gradual, positive changes in your diet that eventually turn into habits that come naturally. It’s really a lifestyle change; for the better.

Again, I can’t stress this enough. AVOID fad diets and diet products as they will NOT allow you to achieve your goal in the LONG term! If their claims sound too good to be true then it probably is… Remember, weight loss requires a permanent life-style change, not a quick-fix solution!!