When I was only 20 lbs overweight, thank God for my wife who made an embarrassing comment about my bulging belly. She gave me a wake-up call. I soon started to become conscious of my diet and exercise activities.
But not long after that, it wasn’t too hard to realize that:
- the food industry,
- the medical professionals, and consequently,
- our own society (being brainwashed collectively by the first two),
have been lying all along about how to lose weight.
It was frustrating to buy expensive diet meals, or low-fat food, or to count calories and restrain myself from overeating, only to gain more weight back than what I initially lost.
I went on a journey of self-education, and learned the top 10 weight loss lies I’ve been believing all along.
First and foremost, “diet and exercise” and “genetics” are only partial truths.
#10 – Skipping Breakfast
Breakfast is the single most important meal of your day. The very act of eating keeps your fat-burning furnace going, and it accounts for 5-15% of your total metabolism.
Skipping breakfast sends a signal to your body to shutdown and conserve energy. This is a natural survival mechanism, because your stomach doesn’t know when the next meal is coming.
For that matter, this also includes lunch and dinner, as well as snacks in between.
Be sure that you have a big healthy breakfast – NOT donuts and/or coffee.
Choose foods that are high in protein and fiber; so forget about white bread. Avoid beverages that are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. These ingredients will just make you crave for more bad calories throughout the day.
#9 – Not Drinking Enough Water
The first thing you should do upon waking up is to drink a glass of water.
Water is THE SINGLE MOST important nutrition for you. You can survive without eating for as much as 1 month; but you will not last without water beyond 2 days.
While you were sleeping, you’ve lost water, and you need a fresh supply from that first drink. Water is the transport medium for everything in your body, from the oxygen that you breathe, the foods that you eat, and the waste products you expel.
Your metabolism will not work up to its maximum capacity without water.
Throughout the rest of the day, you should be constantly drinking water to the point that you have to go the bathroom every 2-3 hours, making sure that your urine is colorless.
# 8 – Exercising At The Wrong Time
The next thing you do after drinking water, is physical exercise. Now that you’re hydrated, you need to start your metabolic engine.
With an empty stomach, exercise will use up your body fat as the primary source for fuel. It’s got no other choice.
If you do it the other way around, eating first before exercising, then you’ll burn up the meal that you just had. Those extra pounds that you’re carrying around will still be there.
What’s even worse, is that if you’ve had a high sugar/starch meal (i.e. pancakes and syrup), you’ll simply pack on more pounds, and it will take more effort to burn it up through exercise.
#7 – Selecting “Diet” Food Over Quality Whole Foods
Artificial sweeteners do not work for weight loss. Sugar is addictive, and sweeteners do nothing but increase your cravings. After drinking that diet soda, it tells your brain that you need more sweets, because you did not have the calories to fuel your energy needs. This is one of the primary causes of cravings.
Fat-free and low-fat products also do not work for weight loss. The brain has a leptin sensor that sends a signal to your brain that you’re stomach is full. Leptin comes from fat. Without fat, your subconscious brain will continue to drive your eating behavior.
#6 – Inadequate Recovery
Not getting enough sleep is obvious to most people. Meditation is widely accepted as a good antidote for stress, but chances are, you’ve never practiced it consistently.
You’re probably telling yourself that you don’t have time, right?
The reality is that if you don’t allow for recovery, both your mind and body will function at a lower performance level. You become less productive, you commit more mistakes, or you become more irritable, etc.
You’ll end up repeating the task, or getting distracted – and that’s nothing but a real time-killer.
In the same way, your metabolism needs to recover to operate at its highest capacity. If you have not rested well enough before exercise, you’re not going to burn as much fat.
#5 – Underestimating The Critical Value Of Micro-Nutrition
Micronutrition includes vitamins, minerals, enzymes, probiotics or good bacteria, and all the other microscopic little things that you cannot see.
I think that’s part of the problem: out of sight, out of mind.
Your cell is the basic building block of your health. If it can do its job of metabolizing food, then you’re not going to get fat.
Metabolism is a complex process, happening at a microscopic level, requiring microscopic ingredients to happen.
You need to become aware of what factors contribute significantly to your own metabolism, as well as what artificial chemicals disrupt your metabolism.
#4 – Poor Breathing Habits
The most valuable commodity in the world: oxygen; yet we all take it for granted. Oxygen boosts cellular metabolism by as much as 1,300%.
Your bad habits get you into a pattern of shallow breathing, which deprives your cells the optimum oxygen it needs.
Without oxygen, a fire stops burning. Without oxygen, your metabolic furnace slows down.
In addition, the poor quality of your air, doesn’t help. Today’s energy efficient homes not only keep the heat inside, but they also keep the good quality oxygen outside.
#3 – Blind Faith In The Food and Drug Industry
Counting calories is a prehistoric approach to weight management, invented at a time, when food science was still in its infancy. 100 calories of a donut WILL NEVER be equal to 100 calories of a bowl of organic oatmeal.
Food quality will always trump caloric restrictions. Watch your food labels very carefully: avoid high fructose corn syrup, trans fats, and sodium nitrates.
Risky and expensive procedures like liposuction or gastric bypass are never the answer. They should NEVER be offered in the first place, in my opinion. The real solution is inside of YOU all along.
Do your homework. Don’t use price as your criteria for selecting the best diet pill in the market. You should research the ingredients, and the reputation of the company. Find out it they’ve had any recalls….
STOP!
You should know better than that. Diet pills are never the answer as well. Don’t you even think about it!
The answer is inside of you. Take personal responsibility.
#2 – Focusing On The Pounds
Are you constantly weighing yourself, day in and day out, praying and hoping that the scale will say “You’re 5 lbs lighter!”?
Only to find out that you’re actually 10 lbs heavier.
I know you want results, but change will never happen if you don’t change your behavior.
There are two kinds of behaviors: conscious and subconscious.
An action is a conscious behavior. It requires effort, it requires a deliberate intention, it requires will-power.
On the other hand, a habit is subconscious. It is easy, effortless, and automatic that you don’t even think about it.
If you turn your bad habits into good habits, then a healthy body will produce a slim body.
#1 – No Emotional Reason To Lose Weight
Any change that you want in your life, begins by changing the way you think. There is no other path to permanent change.
If you are a yo-yo dieter, it’s because you haven’t made a change in your thinking. Specifically, you have not linked that thinking to an emotional reason for losing the weight.
You are a human being. No matter how logical you think you are, ultimately, you’re driven by your emotions.
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