Three Awesome Eating Habits for Weight Loss

The quest for our ideal physique can at times seem like a tough one. We finally manage to get our exercise regime correct, along with buying all of the right foods, but things still don't seem to click into place? Why is that, we ask ourselves? Then we take a step back and have a good look and realise that we've still got those same negative eating habits that put us overweight in the first place!!

The third and final piece in the jigsaw (alongside exercise and our diet) and the most important one if our efforts are going to be sustainable for life is
behavioural change, or what is more commonly referred to as "mindset". Once we have eliminated the majority of our negative habits around food and eating we can really start to see the fruits of our labour.

The following are a list of three of the most important habits to integrate into your daily schedule that once taken on board will see that your exercise and healthy eating habits are fully rewarded:

1. Eat slowly - So many of us are guilty of eating at 100mph. Perhaps due to having to sort the kids meals out too, or only having a short lunch break at work? We really must slow down our eating. A good way to look at it is, the faster we eat, the more we eat, the more we eat, the more we spend on food!! As a rule try to begin eating at 1/4 of your current speed and as you lose the pounds you'll add the pennies!!

2. Wait 20 mins after each meal - How many times after you've cleared your plate have you reached straight for the biscuit tin or for some ice-cream under the belief that you're still not quite full? Once we are full It takes approximately 20 minutes for the message to reach our brain. Therefore, within that 20 minutes we are free to continue eating as much as we like (or until our stomach can hold no more) even though we have actually eaten enough to satisfy our bodies needs already.

If you were to add up all of those extra biscuits, spoonfuls of ice cream, or even second plates of food that we are consuming, that equates to quite a lot of additional food to what we require. Take the humble biscuit for example, containing say 50 calories each, so just two biscuits after your dinner each day would result in an extra pound of fat in just 5 weeks (1lb of fat contains 3,500 calories)

3. Avoid distractions whilst eating - This can be a tough one, but hands up who's guilty of eating in front of the television, internet, a magazine, on the phone to a friend etc, etc? Think back to a time at the cinema when you've demolished a large box of sweet popcorn without even taking your eyes off the screen? Hey, where did it all go? Eating unconsciously can lead to serious over-eating, so take the time to sit at the dinner table and pay attention to what you are eating. Try to pick out flavours and smells, take time to think about the source your food came from (not Asda!) Anything to bring your focus into the moment, not onto whether Ian Beale's opening a new cafe or whether your best friends new bloke is cheating on her.!

Hopefully these 3 habits will get you started (or push you further along) the road to success...
By Jonathan Pittam

(Bootcamp Coach, Personal Trainer, Fat Loss Coach)

http://blastthefat.co.uk
http://facebook.com/blastthefat


 
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