Lose Weight While Eating the Foods You Love

am often asked how I lost forty pounds in less than a year. People often seem surprised when I tell them that I started eating and the weight dropped off almost effortlessly.

Yes, the secret to my forty pound weight loss was that I started eating. I had tried every weight loss program under the sun and could not stick to it because it changed the way I ate or made me think too much about the way I ate. My weight issue was caused by poor eating habits but it was not what I was eating; the problem was I was not eating enough.

Like many people I would skip breakfast or call some caffeinated beverage breakfast, lunch was a sandwich that I seldom finished if I had lunch at all and supper was the big meal of the day that very seldom could I manage finish even small portions. I had put my body in famine or starvation mode and it was doing everything it could to survive and part of the survival since I was starving it, was to store every bit of fat it could latch on to and never let go. In response to my not feeding my body it was refusing to let go of any weight in order to survive, making weight loss pretty close to impossible for me.

If you are struggling with weight loss and counting every calorie as well as limiting your intake of food and still not losing weight, try my program, tweak it to your liking, give it two weeks and see what happens.

Begin by feeding your body! If you start your day with little more than a cup of coffee then it's time to change that habit. If you are like me, solid food first thing in the morning does not sit well with me; I get my breakfast in a smoothie as it seems to sit easier. My favorite recipe is simple and yummy!

1 banana

8 or more ounces of juice (my favorite is pineapple)

1 scoop of slimfast French vanilla powder

A few ice cubes

Blend it all together and enjoy!

I use Slimfast because of the vitamins it contains not because it's a diet supplement. I live in an extremely rural area, many of the vitamin shakes are not easily available, use anything that contains a good amount of vitamins with any flavor you like. Create your own smoothie with the things you like best.

Just because you didn't eat breakfast does not mean you can live off of smoothies all day and eat one big meal at the end of the day. Instead what you are going to do is snack all day.

If you ask a nutrition expert they will recommend fruits and vegetables for these snacks and while that is good for at least 2 of your four snacks I also suggest somewhere in there you do include your favorite treats as well. Depriving yourself of all the things you love is a sure fire way to sabotage any weight loss program. Usually for at least one of my snacks I will have a couple of ounce of my favorite cheese flavored crackers or even a candy bar. I also normally have at least one good chunk of cheese throughout the day. You can buy individual cheese bars at most gas stations and grocery stores now, so even if you are on the run you have no excuse to skip putting some kind of food into your body. Eating is essential to weight loss, if you aren't eating your metabolism is not working and your body is storing fat and it will continue to hold onto fat until you begin to feed it.

Adjust the plan to a way that works for you but the main points of weight loss through actually feeding your body is to start your day out with some kind of substance; if you choose a full breakfast and your body can handle it that is perfect, if not then make a smoothie and kick start your metabolism. Snack throughout the day, choose foods that you enjoy, you can include some junk food snacks but do make a point of putting something that has some kind of nutritional value as well such as yogurt, fruit, vegetables or cheese as well. Keep the snack light but have at least four per day. Eat something every two to three hours and have at least one full meal every day to ensure any kind of real weight loss, your body must have something to burn, starving it will only cause the body to store fat. Do not skip a meal such as lunch, you can keep it on the lighter side but do not walk away from the table hungry. Do not deprive yourself of your favorite treats, anything in moderation is fine. Apply a little common sense and make sure you feed your body. Try this for two weeks and see what happens. Weight loss is not a fad or a passing fancy; it is a way of life when done in a healthy and viable way.

By Bel