When It Comes to Weight Loss, You Can’t Ignore the Basics

If you want to lose weight, chances are good that you’ve fallen for a quick weight loss scheme at least once, if not 100 times. After all, it is much more appealing to think that one “magic pill” or effortless action could reduce our clothing size than it is to consider the hard work that you’ve been told it takes to get the body you want.However, there is no way around it. When it comes to achieving weight loss—true and lasting weight loss that you enjoy forever and ever, until the day you cease to exist—you can’t ignore the basics. This begins with letting go of the diet mentality. 
 
Let Go of the Diet Mentality
The sooner you quit looking for a quick fix, the sooner you can actually change your lifestyle and start getting positive, healthy results. Sure, a diet may help you lose a few pounds, but the real question is whether or not it will help you keep them off as well. And will it do so safely? The reality is, if it is not something that you can do each and every day for the rest of your life, then it isn’t going to work. So, while it may be tempting to do a 7-day or 6-month program to drop your excess weight, keep in mind that you will likely gain the weight back (and then some) once you “go off” it. This is why you have to make your dietary changes part of your lifestyle. The more they become ingrained in you and your everyday actions, the greater the likelihood that they will stick, as will the results that they bring with them. Instead of thinking of a diet as a way of limiting and restricting your food intake, redefine it to what it actually is. The word diet is nothing more than the foods that you eat on a regular basis. This makes it not good or bad, which means that it removes the negative emotions often associated with this way of living.
 
The Basics Only Work if You Use Them
Another thing to consider is that the basics of weight loss only work if you use them. So, even though the guidelines of what it takes to achieve weight loss aren’t new, they are definitely underused. More and more people are searching for “new” or “innovative” ways to lose weight and keep it off, only to find out that they don’t work and end up more frustrated than they were before. So, yes the basics of weight loss have been around for quite some time, but if you use them, they will work. They will take time, for sure, but they will also provide you with a healthy, safe weight loss that you can sustain for the rest of your life. What are these basics that promise such great results if followed?
 
 
The 7 Basic “Rules” of Healthy Weight Loss That Lasts
In both our SlimPlateHYPERLINK “http://www.slimplatesystem.com/slimplate-system” System and our new book, Fat-Me-Not: Weight Loss Diet of the Future, we follow the seven basic “rules” necessary for living at a healthy weight both right now and well into the future. They are:
 
Drinking 8 glasses of water each and every day
Eating breakfast within 30 minutes of waking up
Eating frequently throughout the day
Limiting your sugar intake
Increasing your physical activity
Eating real food as opposed to diet food
Portioning your food intake
Each one of these is important to achieving and maintaining weight loss, so you cannot decide to do just one or two and expect stellar results. Sure, they all have their own advantages, but they work best when used together as part of a balanced lifestyle plan. Still struggling with this idea and thinking of all of the new diets you want to try before taking this route?
 
Think Not of What You Will Lose, But of What You Will Gain
To help make it easier to follow the basics of healthy living and quit looking for quick fixes that don’t work long term, think not of what you will lose, but of what you will gain when living this way. For instance, you will gain a healthier body that is more resistant to disease and illness. You will also likely find it easier to move about and have fewer health problems. Losing weight the right way isn’t easy, but it is worth it. So, commit to following these seven “rules” of healthy living and create a life worth living.
 
What “rules” do you find necessary to living a healthy life? We’d love to have you share them!