How To Stay Slim: Why Calorie Counting Doesn't Work

Everyone knows they shouldn't have too much salt and sugar or the wrong kind of fat so we'll skip that conversation.

Your first step to stay slim (or healthy) must be "eating right." If you follow our basic principles there will be no counting calories in your life. You'll be able to eat whenever you're hungry yet always stay slim.

Here is our basic guideline for food selection:

• Eat foods as they are found in nature- in their original condition.

• If it has an ingredient list you need to read it. If the list includes ingredients that come from a laboratory you most likely should not buy it.

• If it comes in a bag, box, or can (any kind of package) then there's probably a better choice to make.

Your mainstays will be lean meats and fish, legumes, fruits and vegetables. You will be visiting the spice aisle. Keep everything else either off your list or the exception to the rule.

Calorie counting won't create a struggle-free approach to staying slim. Here's why:

• Calories only reveal a number.They don't reveal specific content- ingredients called flavor enhancers or flavor potentiators that will confuse your body's hunger signals.

• Calories alone don't speak to specific nutritional needs for assorted nutrients.

• Calories don't identify whether your selection is a whole food or highly processed food that should be avoided.

• Calories don't govern your appetite and either control or drive your cravings.

Instead of first being calorie conscious focus on choosing foods that either don't need a label or foods with 100% of their ingredients made by Mother Nature.

Here is your game plan for getting slim and staying that way- or for good health in general:

1. Eliminate from your life all foods containing chemical additives. As much as possible eliminate processed foods.

2. Learn to recognize your body's "true hunger." Let true hunger dictate when and how much you eat.

3. Exercise moderately and consistently.

ELIMINATE CHEMICAL ADDITIVES:

Eliminate processed foods from your diet. Don't confuse real whole food with edible creations made in a laboratory. The purpose of chemical creations is not to nourish- it's to drive cravings and subsequently drive sales for that product. We call this Frankenstein food "cravage"- our hybrid word (crave and garbage) for foods created in a laboratory to drive cravings while providing no significant nutrition.

Eating cravage is shooting yourself in your fitness foot. Cravage distorts your appetite and confuses your body's hunger signals, making you able to eat inordinately large quantities of food. You won't know if you're eating because you're hungry or because something tastes good. You won't know when you're satiated and you'll undoubtedly overeat.

DISCOVER YOUR TRUE HUNGER:

Your body's true hunger must drive the quantity of food you consume at any given time. When your body is free of chemical additives you'll be able to trust a physical feeling to let you know it's time to eat. You won't need to look at a clock for validation. True hunger will tell you it's time to eat.

Eating whole foods free of chemical additives makes you able to stop eating when your hunger has been satiated- a fundamental habit for staying slim.

You'll learn how many calories you need after you are in the habit of eating (whole foods) when you're hungry and stopping before you're stuffed.

Here are some additional points to remember:

• If you regularly find yourself feeling stuffed, then you're regularly overeating.

• Think in terms of bites rather than portions. If you savor every bite you'll have a better chance of recognizing your tipping point of enough but not too much- before you've consumed too many bites. Don't swallow anything that isn't worth swallowing. No mindless mouthfuls.

• Require that your food be nutritious and delicious. One without the other will not suffice.

EXERCISE: MOVE YOUR BODY

Everyone needs exercise- not just fat people. Design an in-home exercise plan for days when time is short. Including an at-home workout in your fitness plan is perhaps the #1 secret to sustaining your fitness habit through the myriad phases of life.

Any exercise is better than none, provided it isn't surreptitiously leading you to injury. We advocate weight training for many reasons- partly because it doesn't just burn extra calories while you're exercising.

Strength training with weights gradually changes your body's ratio of fat to muscle, increasing your basal metabolism. This is a fundamental advantage of weight training. Weight workouts can be designed for anyone- regardless of size or fitness level.

MAINTAINING HEALTHY WEIGHT

Once you have the habits of working out and eating right you'll have an easy time maintaining your desired weight. When these two habits are in place calorie counting could come in handy. If you eat a bit too much one day, you'll know how to go light for the next meal or two. Instead of peanut butter and jelly on bread you can leave out the bread or nibble on frozen blueberries or baked garbanzo beans.

Being fit feels good and half of fitness is eating well. Eliminate Frankenstein food from your life to get in touch with your true hunger. Lift weights to change your body's ratio of fat to muscle to increase your basal metabolism.

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