Can you not figure out why you keep gaining weight? Let me guess, you don’t eat that much. It must be because you are getting older, right? Or is it because you eat more junk food than you’d like to admit and your workout regimen is either inconsistent or just better classified as activity, not exercise. No judgment, I think you look great. But I bet that you don’t. If you do or just truly don’t care than you can stop reading. If you do care, then there’s a good chance that you are at least mildly depressed too. I’m so sorry, you don’t deserve to be. But good news, you do have the power to change the way you look and way more importantly, feel. Start by googling sugar and depression.
If you really want to feel better, you need to start by decreasing your sugar intake. I’m sorry, I know you so deeply want to believe that it’s ok to eat sugar. No, it’s not. Sugar is poison. But don’t just take my word for it, watch this fun short video from Dr. Robert Lustig and you’ll be convinced!
Please stop poisoning your body. It will reward you by dropping some quick pounds. Unfortunately, as soon as you add it back in, your weight will go back on. It’s that simple. I know that sounds scary, but not as scary as actually realizing how addicted to sugar you are. Why would you want to be consuming something that has that much control over you anyways? I know it makes you happy for a second, until it’s gone. Then you want to cry because you want more but know you can’t. Or maybe you do… and then you get so mad at yourself once you finish. What a vicious struggle… why would you put yourself through that? Nothing is worth that struggle. So stop it now. Don’t do it to be skinny, do it to be mentally and physically healthier.
The trick to cutting out sugar? Realize that this is your ticket away from dieting. Stop thinking that you need to almost starve yourself to look good. Yes, if you eat 500 calories a day for 6 weeks you will lose weight. You will also lose all of your muscle tone, your sanity and your metabolism. Congratulations, you’ve just lost 20 lbs, only to gain 30 back within months. What’s the point?
Instead, eat the calories your body needs to be healthy. No not some of the calories your body needs… all of the calories your body needs.
Figure out that number and start following it. Your body will start losing weight when you let it stop stressing out. Dan John has a bunch of great books and this awesome quote comes from Can You Go? and really sums it up well: “Eat Like An Adult!” Eat real food that you cooked yourself. Eat vegetables. Eat fruit. Eat lean meat. Yes, you can have a potato, no you can’t have a potato chip. Why? Because it’s crap! We eat to provide our bodies with nutrition, not for happiness.
Food does not equal happiness. Yes, you can awkwardly laugh and say it does, but let’s go back to the depression statement…. no it doesn’t. So how do we stop relying on food for happiness? Stop dieting and start actually letting yourself eat WHEN you want to eat. Oh my God I know you just gained weight just by reading that! Lol, no seriously. Eat a small meal every few hours. It’s the fastest way to speed up your metabolism. But you have to eat healthy food your body can actually do something with. Your body can’t do a damn thing with junk food except store it as fat. Stop eating junk food. Start eating real food. Yes, you’ll go through withdrawals of sugar. More reason to get off asap. In a few weeks, fruit and veggies will start tasting amazing.
Your energy will sky-rocket and your mood will improve. In a few months you won’t even remember your old habits, just stay strong and embrace your new identity of being healthy. So start finding some yummy recipes for every meal, that have natural ingredients and start eating like an adult 5 times a day. Yes, eat. And all of a sudden food isn’t nearly as exciting. But sorry, you have to eat anyways, because your body needs it to build muscle and function properly. The other thing it needs? Hard exercise. It used to be called manual labor but now we just sit behind a computer. So now we’ll call it high intensity exercise. Not inappropriate exercise, that term is relative to you and your fitness level. Don’t lift weights that hurt your body, that’s counterproductive. Use weights that your body can lift semi-comfortably 12x. And use every muscle in your body. If you don’t have muscle you have fat, doesn’t matter what your scale weight is. And realize that your heart is a muscle. Your heart rate needs to get up. Don’t go to a gym and sit on the machines for over half the time you are there. You can sit the other 23 hours a day. Go sweat, like really sweat.
Soon enough it’ll be your new addiction. And good news, that addiction does not cause depression, quite the opposite actually. Then when you can squat two times your body weight well, lift half of your body weight over your head several times, do 10 pushups, 5 pull-ups and 50 sit ups you will start looking very very healthy. Not skinny, just oh so healthy and inspiring. These days that sounds crazy, in caveman times that wasn’t an option. Don’t fall in line with our times… we are heading in a very unhealthy and unhappy direction, please don’t be part of it.
by Kristen Cole, Owner, Skinny Without Struggle™