Have you ever tried to lose weight by simply deciding you are going to stop being a junk food junkie? You finish off the last 4 Oreos in the bag and then spend the next three or four days eating nothing but yogurt, chicken and bland salads. Then what happens? You find yourself opening up a new bag of Oreos because you feel that life is not worth living if you can not be happy about what you eat.
Do not worry. This happens to most junk food junkies because they think they can only lose weight with will power and an abrupt change in their diet. Although this looks great on paper, it does not work for the majority of people because the approach is what we call cold turkey. Change needs to happen gradually in order for it to work long term.
First face the facts. You are a junk food junkie. You have been eating junk food for a long time and it is extremely difficult for you to eat a carrot instead of those tasty McDonald french fries. It has taken you years upon years to get out of shape and become sedentary. If it happened overnight, you would have noticed it. No one can break a long-time habit easily.
In order for anyone to lose weight and keep it off for good, a person must lead a healthy lifestyle. Knowing this is important because it is the ultimate goal for anyone wanting to lose weight. Leading a healthy lifestyle includes exercise, proper nutrition and a sense of well-being for the areas in your life that give you joy. All on a daily basis.
Your first thought is probably that it takes too much work to to kick the junk food junkie habit and lead a healthy lifestyle. Exercise every day? Who has the time and energy for that?! And proper nutrition will just take you back to those bland salads again, right? Wrong! People who lead a healthy lifestyle eat McDonald's french fries and Oreos. They just do not eat them all the time.
As far as exercise is concerned, all a person needs to keep themselves fit and active is 30 minutes. Walking, running, bike riding, dancing, roller skating, skiing...it does not matter. If you can not set aside a half hour each day to ensure the health of the only body you have to take care of in your life, you need to make more changes than just weight loss!
What does all of this have to do with how you can quit being a junk food junkie? A lot! Now that you know leading a healthy lifestyle is the ultimate goal, you can set up a road map to get there. Everyone wants to be there overnight, but setting a realistic time frame to achieve your goals is a more effective and productive approach.
Your parents probably told you to eat your vegetables when you were a child. Somewhere along the way you decided to eat for yourself and junk food replaced what you have always known was a healthier choice. The shock value of going back to those vegetables without continuing to eat your junk food will not feel right to you. I say keep eating your junk food.
What? Keep eating junk food? Yep, that is my advice. But here is the catch. Instead of eating junk food every time you sit down to a meal or a snack, choose one meal a day that you will change to better food choices. I told you this would be gradual. If you usually eat Cheez-its every day at 3pm for a snack, eat a bowl of granola cereal instead.
After making this small daily change for a few weeks, discipline yourself to take it to the next level. Now that you are OK with eating good once a day, go for two! This could be two snacks, two meals or a snack and a meal. I would go for a meal this time because it will accelerate your weight loss more than changing your snack habits every day.
So after a month of this, you are not really eating junk food all the time are you? You have probably lost some weight but you still get to eat pizza every Friday night. Hmmm...interesting how this works. Now that you are well on your way to eating properly without giving up the foods you love, it is time to think about exercise.
We have already established that you do not have 30 minutes a day to sweat on the treadmill. OK, how about 5 minutes? Everyone has 5 minutes to walk around the block. Spend 5 minutes a day doing this for a week. Once you start feeling better, which you will, you will want to do it more often. I can almost guarantee you will find 10 minutes in your busy schedule.
Keep going at this speed. Increase your exercise time each week by 5 minutes. After a month and a half you will be up to 30 minutes and that is it! Whether you want to continue improving your health is your own choice, but for the most part, people only need 30 minutes of sustained exercise a day to maintain a healthy weight.
Even if you are reading this and you know you can eat better than one meal a day, or exercise longer than 30 minutes, do not do it. You will just burn out like all the other times you have tried to lose weight. Keep it gradual and eventually you will get to the point where you are actually exercising and eating healthy most of the time without thinking twice about it.
This approach worked for me 15 years ago and I have maintained a weight loss of 70 pounds ever since. I had severe asthma and could not exercise at first, but as my body became healthy, I suddenly found myself off medications and outside on a bicycle every day. Words cannot describe how happy I am to be able to do this now and breath properly now.
For things to change, you have got to change. Just remember kicking the junk food junkie habit does not have to be overnight. In fact, the more gradual it is, the more effective it will be in the long run.
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