Have you fallen victim to the summer diet? It scares me how many ladies genuinely go "oh crap, summer! I've got 2 weeks to lose weight before my holiday". This is incredibly unhealthy... but chances are, if you fit this description, it's not your fault.There are so many companies plugging diets these days that nobody seems to truly understand the meaning of 'healthy' any more - or care for that matter. Today's society is about being skinny, which is exceptionally sad and unhealthy.
Summer bodies are built in winter ladies! There are no quick fixes to healthy. There are quick fixes to being skinny, these include: starving yourself, meal replacement slim shakes, extreme calorie restriction and other unpleasantries.
Most women will weigh themselves obsessively and cheer when the number on the scale drops, but what is it your losing? Besides your health? Probably some muscle mass, maybe some water weight - I don't know, I'm not qualified enough to make that statement but if I could hazard a guess I would say that it's not just fat your losing.
Unless you are morbidly obese, losing large numbers on the scales in a short period of time is not only dangerous but unsustainable. You might chug a few meal replacement shakes, lose a few pounds and then when it's time to go back to eating real food - guess what? You've completely slowed your metabolism down. On come those pounds you just lost, and probably some more too.
Do yourselves a favour and throw your scales away - or at least minimise the amount you use them so your own sanity. Think about your long term goals, I hope that it is to be healthy, happy and comfortable in your own skin and the best way to achieve this is... surprise surprise... to eat healthy and exercise.
Exercise does wonders for you, besides the obvious of increasing your health and your strength - something you will need everyday until you die, it will also raise your self esteem and confidence, increase your bodies efficiency and raise your metabolism.
As for eating healthy, my number one rule as always is "Just Eat Real Food". If it grows naturally or used to have a face then it's probably ok :)
These are the foods that will provide you with the energy and nutrients that your body requires, often referred to as 'nutrient dense' foods - as opposed to 'energy dense' foods. Energy dense foods provide no nutritional value but take up your calories and offer not much in return, these are your standard breads, cakes and other baked goods... yeah sorry to break the news to you about that but you can't have your cake and eat it too. It saddens me every time I look at Instagram and I see photos uploaded by girls trying to lose weight saying things like 'huge healthy breakfast today' with a picture of a low fat yoghurt and a banana. It's bollocks is what it is. Sorry it just gets me so mad, exercise and eat real food and I promise you your food intake will increase - not decrease.
I'm not saying you should never eat cake. Far from it, a little indulgence once in a while can do you good. Nor am I saying you should completely cut out a food group. Every body is different and every body has different requirements, different metabolism rates and so on. People rave about diets like Paleo that cut out pretty much all processed foods - I'm all for this and follow something similar myself BUT people are generally so successful on these diets because once you take away their breads and cereals and sugary foods they HAVE to replace it with something else and this is typically something far more healthy and nutritional.
You should be your own judge and make your own decisions that you will be able to stick to for the long run. You've only got one body, you might as well get comfortable in it and you should treat it well.
Minnie
xxx
P.s check out this blog for amazing sugar free recipes & this facebook page for amazing delicious clean recipes
