Three Foods to Avoid If You Want to Lose Weight (and be healthy too!)

Losing weight has a lot to do with avoiding unhealthy foods. You can work out as hard as you want, but if you’re replacing those burnt calories with unhealthy foods, chemicals and extra fats, you’re probably not going to see much in terms of results.

Here are three foods to avoid if you want to lose weight.

==> Anything Microwavable

Anything that’s frozen or designed to be microwaved should be avoided.

Frozen foods are packed full of all kinds of unhealthy chemicals. Just take a look at the back of the box. How many of the ingredients can you actually read? How many of them sound like whole foods?

Also, the level of fats, sodium and sugars are extremely high. Many TV dinners that people eat in one meal on their own are actually three or more servings – meaning you’re getting much, much more fat than you think if you just skimmed the ingredients.

==> High Calorie Drinks

Drinks are one of the biggest sources of sugar and extraneous sugars in the standard American diet. A lot of people just don’t realize how much fat is in these various beverages.

Coca-Cola, Pepsi and 7 Up, for example, all contain large amounts of both sugar and calories. People who drink Coke instead of water almost always end up overweight.

Another common offender is caffeine. Coffee itself has very few calories. However, once you add in the milk or cream plus the sugar, it suddenly becomes a high calorie drink.

Even worse are drinks like lattes, Americanos, cappuccinos and Frappuchinos. These extremely high calorie drinks don’t “feel” like eating a meal, but can often contain just as many calories.

==> Processed Meats

Finally, processed meats are also poor choices if you want to lose weight.

It’s no mystery if you look at what really goes into processed meats. It’s often the fattiest parts, blended skin, various body parts that couldn’t be sold separately, all mixed with copious amounts of fat.

In addition, these processed meats are usually full of preservatives, chemicals and sodium.

Stick to lean, whole meats and avoid processed meats. You’ll consume fewer calories and you’ll be eating healthier overall as well.

These are three foods to avoid, although it won’t be easy at first, but it will help your overall health.

Small Steps Can Lead to Big Weight Loss

People often think of weight loss in very big steps. For example, committing to making a huge diet change, or committing to exercise four times a week.

While these kinds of huge proclamations can be effective for some, for most people this just doesn’t work in reality. People like to think they have the willpower to just completely turn their life upside down on a whim, but more often than not, the changes don’t stick.

If you want to really create a lasting change, the best way to go about it is to do it in small steps.

==> Small Steps to a Better Diet

Changing your diet isn’t something you should try to do overnight. In fact, people who do try to change their diet overnight rarely manage to stick with their dietary goals.

Instead, try to change your diet one food at a time, one week at a time.

For example, make it your goal for this week to eat a salad with two of your meals each day. That’s your only goal. You don’t need to count calories, you don’t need to reduce your food intake, you don’t need to quit fast food. All you need to do is eat a salad.

Then the next week, you might make it your goal to stop eating fried foods. Again, if that’s your goal, it should be your only goal for the week. Don’t try to overdo it by implementing too many changes at once.

Taking your dietary changes slowly gives your brain time to adjust and get used to your new habits. It also gives your biochemistry time to adjust to the shifting hormones, calorie levels and nutrition.

==> Small Steps to a Fat Burning Workout

Much like changing your diet, your workout habits should also be taken slowly. If you try to take on a workout schedule that’s too ambitious for you, there’s a very good chance you’ll experience some backlash. Your subconscious mind will start making up excuses for not exercising.

Instead of trying to take on a huge exercise routine, start with just one or two days a week. Work out enough that you feel like you’re accomplishing your goals, but not so much that your whole body feels like it has gone through a washing machine.

Once you’re in the habit of working out regularly, you can turn up the dial on the intensity. In the beginning, however, it makes sense to take things a little bit slower.

The most important thing to internalize is the mindset shift. Instead of thinking “today is the day when I’m going to make a huge change in my life,” start thinking in terms of “I’m going to make a slow and lasting change.” That’s how real change is done.

Who doesn’t love pizza? Well now you can have a reason to eat even more!

Ok so maybe the title is a little misleading but keep reading and you’ll see why you can eat not only pizza but whatever you want and still lose weight. A recent study by Men’s Health had two groups of participants who were only allowed the same amount of calories per week. However, one group was allowed to eat whatever they wanted on Sunday. At the end of two weeks while neither group had significant weight loss, the group that had the opportunity to indulge on Sundays were more willing to continue their diet to accomplish their weight loss goals.

So really, you can eat pizza, ice cream, or those Oreos we all love. The key is, to allow your self one “cheat” day. Think of it more as a “reward” day, for all your hard work and discipline throughout the week.

If you want to see a man who DID lose weight from eating just pizza (to the tune of over 100 pounds in 7 months) watch the video below.

Pasquale gained over 300 hundred pounds in just a few years after moving to America from Italy. The doctor told him he was at risk of heart attack. He thought of his child and the fear of not being around to see him growing up. He went back to his roots and chose something he knew and loved that he could enjoy eating everyday…PIZZA. He only ate pizza for 7 months and has lost over 100 pounds. Check him out below.

Losing weight is a goal most people have but never get around to…

Every month, there are thousands of people searching for a way to shed a few pounds in a short amount of time. Even most of the people who are excited and “committed” to their weight loss goals for a New Year’s resolution give up only weeks into the year. 

Why does this occur? 

It could be due to the fact that they usually don’t have a plan to follow. So instead of focusing on one small, achievable goal at a time, many are only focused on the long term goal or big picture, and can only think about losing 20 pounds. Of the few willing to break a sweat and hit the gym, a large percentage may not be doing the correct exercises for to produce the desired results. That’s a sure way to kill your motivation. Now out of those who are exercising correctly and burning calories, many are just putting back on the calories they burned by not having a proper diet plan. You see how not having a plan in place can really slow your potential for success?

The Truth is it’s Really Hard to Lose Weight if You Don’t Understand How!

Theoretically, about 3,500 calories equals one pound of body weight. This would mean that in order to lose one pound, you would have to lose or burn, 3,500 calories. 

According to WebMD, the moderately active man needs about 2,600-2,800 calories per day, while the active woman would need about 2,000-2,200 per day to maintain their weight and energy balance for daily activities. It can take 60-90 minutes to lose anywhere from 400-1000 calories depending on the exercise or training being conducted. Either you need to be doing one exercise, or mixing in a combination of exercises, but either way it would need to equal 3.5 hours of burning 1,000 calories an hour just to lose one pound. 

Why do you want to lose weight and how long do you have to lose it?

Many people have different reason for wanting to lose weight. Maybe you want to fit into that wedding dress, feel confident in your bathing suite, or impress your old class mates at a reunion. Whatever the reason, you want to lose weight and you want to lose it fast, right?

So how do you lose weight while still being healthy?

Looking at the facts above, we know it takes at least an hour of hard work to burn even close to 1,000 calories, and around 3,500 calories weigh a pound. So in order to lose 10 pounds you need to burn around 35,000 calories (3,500 calories per pound x 10 pounds).

So now you know how to do it, but will you do it?

Will you have the discipline to eliminate those 35,000 calories?

For example, rather than setting unrealistic expectations, let’s shoot for a goal that is less difficult to achieve but will still require some work. Let’s say you want to lose 10 pounds over the next 6 weeks. That’s not an unreasonable goal and it can be accomplished in the desired time frame without too much work.

In business, everything is about systems. Why? Because they work and they’re easy to follow. Why not develop a “system” or a plan, to lose a specific amount of weight in a desired amount of time? Setting smaller goals will help you reach the overall or long-term goal, to achieve your desired outcome.

So if you want to lose 10 pounds in the next 6 weeks, that’s around 1.6 pounds a week. If you can lower your daily caloric intake by 500 calories, you’d be cutting 3,500 calories a week, or one pound. At that rate, you could lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks, but keep in mind that’s without exercise. If you were to exercise for an hour 3-4 times a week, you could burn an additional 3,000-4,000 calories a week. Combine that with the 3,500 calories you shaved by eating the right food, you would easily be on target to lose at least 1.5-2 pounds each week. That’s seems much more doable in the amount of time given and at that rate, in 6 weeks you’ll have lost those 10 pounds.

So what’s your plan to lose weight?

I’ve come up with a 4 step process to help you achieve your desired weight loss goal. Before you’re going to be able to effectively plan your weight loss goals, you’ll need to understand how certain factors can affect your progress.

Here are the four parts you need to know to develop your plan:

        1.Goal – set your desired weight loss goals and time frame for losing it. 

Trying to figure out how you’re going to lose 20 pounds within X amount of time can be a little bewildering. If you have a certain event or occasion in the near future to attend and are feeling a little self-conscious about your weight, figure how how long you have and break it down into smaller chunks that you can work on. For example, if you wanted to lose 6 pounds in the next 30 days, you can focus on smaller chunks of time such as 1 pound every 5 days. It will be easier to stay motivated and focused for 5 days since the challenge will only be a few days away each time you hit a goal.

        2. Diet – understand calories, what to eat, and when.

I’m not going to tell you that you can’t eat a burger. I will say what’s more important is the amount of calories you’re putting into your body. Figure out how many calories you need to lose and give yourself a daily amount. Try to ration those calories throughout the day. Do a little research and find out how many calories are in the foods you eat most frequently. If the calories are higher than you like or more than what you should eat for your daily calorie budget, try eating smaller portions. Find alternatives to your favorite unhealthy foods that are low in calories and can stimulate your metabolism.

        3. Exercise – you need to do the exercises that burn the most calories.

While cutting unnecessary calories out of  your diet will surely help you lose weight, exercise is the real key to speeding up the process. Think about it like this…If you’re eating 6,000 calories a day and you’re only burning 500 calories from exercise, that still leaves 5,500 calories left over. Even if you’re body uses 3,000 calories of energy on its own throughout the day, there’s still 2,500 calories you’ll be keeping. You need to do high-intensity workouts that ensure you’re burning the most calories possible and making the most of your time.

        4. Track – keep track of your progress and results.

There’s no sense in trying to have a plan if you’re not going to write it down and track your results. Not only will it be easier than trying to remember everything in your head, being able to see that you have accomplished the smaller goals on the way to your ultimate goals will be some positive reinforcement to keep going.

You should follow these simple, yet effective steps to create an effective strategy for your weight loss goals.

If you want to lose weight, no matter how much, it really boils down to burning more calories than you’re consuming. My suggestion is to have a plan to follow and make it that much easier on yourself.

I recently found this program that includes all the information you need to create your own plan to lose weight. It includes an introduction to calories and how we burn fat. It has a diet section that explains how to calculate lean body mass, fat percentage, and provide you with a rapid weight loss plan. There’s also a workout portion that covers exercises that can double your results without going to a gym. Last but certainly not least, the course also has a motivation and mindset area to get you focused on your goals and motivated to reach them. It’s been getting some crazy testimonials also. If you’re serious about losing those 10 pounds you should check it out here.

Until next time,

Happy weight loss!