- Do you go overboard in the eating dept. for 2 days and let it sabotage your “diet” for the next 2 weeks?
- Do you feel so guilty about eating like a piggy all weekend that you figure you’re a lost cause?
- At dinner, have you ever uttered “What’s the use, I already ate fries and a burger for lunch, why stop now?”
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1 bad meal won’t make or break your body. Hell, a weekend of bad meals won’t do much damage either. The important lesson here is to STOP the insanity Sunday night, wake up for work on Monday and make your oatmeal, drink your water and get your butt back to the gym (or to boot camp 🙂 THIS IS HOW YOU SURVIVE a weekend away, a vacation or ANY other time you find yourself completely off track: my favorite 5 Habits of Highly Successful Skinny People. (You know that by “Skinny” I really mean “people with a healthy weight who consistently do the right thing so that their body responds accordingly.” It’s just that Successful “Skinny” People sounded better in the title.)
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1) They eat out fewer than 4 times/week. Constantly eating out is sabotaging your goals, trust me. Check out the nutritional info of the meal that you thought (I.E. hoped) was “not that bad.” You will be shocked that you just unknowingly consumed half a day’s calories in one sitting at a restaurant. Way too often we underestimate the calories/fat/salt in our food by over 100 percent. One of the other main culprits in restaurant/take out meals: serving size. If you never prepare your own food then it means that you are not reading labels. If you are not reading labels than you have no foundation for how much (or little) you should be consuming in order to maintain your weight. REALITY CHECK: A 15 minute meal made in the home for both breakfast and lunch can be prepared in the time it takes to order and then wait for the delivery guy.
2) They decide what they will order at a restaurant PRIOR TO arriving. Go online to view your potential meal choices before you enter the restaurant. Doing so takes away the guessing game, eliminates the mindset of “Oh well she’s ordering the fries, so can I”, and eradicates all last minute snap-decision to indulge.
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3) They plan out all of their meals for the day…in the morning. Eating to lose weight/maintain weight is as simple as having a plan and being consistent. Like any other task of grand importance, you’ve got to be prepared. Even a woman with the best intentions can set herself up for failure if she waits until “after the fact” of being starving/having no will power/left only with poor options like bodega or pizza place. PRE plan what you will eat and watch the Lbs drop off!
4) They eat every few hours. The goal is to keep your metabolism revving like an engine. Waiting too many hours in between meals or, even worse, waiting “until you are hungry” sets you up for overeating/out-of-control & unrealistic cravings/emotional eating etc. Smaller meals spread out every few hours will keep hunger to a minimum and satiety to a maximum.
5) They eat breakfast every morning. Breakfast kick starts your metabolism and turns your body into a calorie burning machine. Not eating until later in the morning/afternoon sends the message to your body that you will not be getting nourishment anytime soon. So your body thinks it’s doing you a favor by switching into survival mode! It will lock down any energy that it has saved up and prevents you from burning excess that it has stored. Therefore, not eating HELPS you store fat. EEEEK.
The Body Transformation Expert,
Laura Miranda MsPT, CSCS
www.StrongHealthyWoman.com
646.454.0777
INSPIRATION FOR THIS BLOG POST TODAY: I just got back from a weekend with friends in the Hamptons. It was insane! Everything was larger than life – the house, the hotel sized pool, the heated bathroom floors (I know it’s August, but I just had to play with everything!) The most insane part of the weekend actually came from the amount of food that my friends and I managed to consume in 2.5 short days. I have to also mention (or they would kill me) that my friends and I have very similar eating habits…no salt, no processed foods, lots of veggies fruits and lean meats (ah hem, usually.) All of that was out the window this weekend as we managed to eat everything in sight from sun up to sun down!
Here’s the important part of the story: Do I feel guilty about this? NO! Did I let it throw me off my plan when I got back to the real world on Monday? NO! Did I let it spiral out of control, throw my hands up and keep eating like this the rest of the week? HELL NO!
Like a woman on a mission, I woke up Monday and got back on track by eating a healthy breakfast and getting my butt into that gym. That’s it. Damage undone. You can do it too ladies! Just remember, a healthy lifestyle is one that consists of b-a-l-a-n-c-e!
Leave me a comment if you have more tips and tricks that make YOU a highly successful HEALTHY person!
