Are you tired of dieting and regain all that weight that you thought you lost? To achieve a stable weight, the solution is not to follow a new diet, let alone pressure yourself to do it from the first day of the new year.
The feeling of getting back to where you started on your weight loss journey can be very frustrating because maintaining a calorie-restrictive diet is extremely hard for the average person. Therefore, save all that energy and put it into projects that are truly sustainable in the long term, adopting new eating habits and improving your relationships with food.
4 projects for the new year instead of dieting
1. Adopt an "anti-diet"
If you choose this route, you should begin to change your perspective on appetite and how to satisfy it with healthy foods, in addition to beginning to appreciate each bite for its nutritional contribution instead of looking for quantity.
The key to achieving this is to use the concept of awareness; In other words, it is about listening to the needs of your body and providing it with only what is necessary, without abusing your desires or repressing your instincts. In this case, you should focus on the food in front of your eyes and eliminate any possible distractions.
This type of diet is basically about building a healthy relationship with food and exercising your intuition when it comes to what foods are really good for you. In addition, leaving aside the aspect of weight loss as an end goal will help you have a more supportive perspective with your self-esteem. From there, weight loss will come without a hitch.
In fact, an analysis has found that adopting an awareness mindset and intuitive eating strategies can lead to quite significant weight loss. (Fuentes et al., 2019). The best thing is that this new way of thinking can help those individuals who deal with obsessive attitudes around food and their relationship with their weight, since this mentality improves satisfaction and reduces emotional stress around the body (Schaefer and Magnuson, 2014).
2. Take care of your digestive system
Each individual has a different gut microbiome, so your body can acquire many more calories than another by eating the same amount of food.
Research indicates that this is due to a change in the balance of bacteria in your gut ecosystem, promoting microbes that cause an increase in the amount of calories obtained from each food. In addition, they can promote the accumulation of fat, modify appetite signals or cause inflammation, which are contributing factors to develop obesity (Kang and Cai, 2017).
Solutions to this problem suggest the use of probiotic supplements, but unfortunately the ideal dosage for this goal has not yet been studied.
A non-invasive way to start changing the course of your gut bacteria is by choosing your food carefully to make sure you get all the necessary prebiotics; that is, the plant fibers that the good bacteria in the gut are interested in.
3. Prioritize sleep
The reality is that sleep continues to be an important part of your health, because when you don't get enough hours of it, your body produces more appetite-stimulating hormones, causing you to make bad decisions for your health. Also, when you are very tired, your brain produces more cortisol, which increases hunger and can even affect your metabolism (Ness et al., 2019).
However, we understand that some people deal with insomnia on a daily basis. If this is the case, you can try the following tips to try to counter it:
- Move your bedtime earlier than usual, gradually getting your body used to the change.
- Set a time limit to stop using electronic devices: the blue light that comes from them is making it difficult for you to fall asleep.
- Listen to relaxing music to help you sleep.
4. Find healthy ways to manage stress
The connections between stress and weight gain are increasingly evident thanks to the latest research done measuring cortisol in blood, urine or saliva.
It is proven that people with higher cortisol levels weigh more , have a greater waist circumference and are more prone to obesity. Also, the cortisol that the body produces when a person is very thin promotes fat storage. Therefore, the best way to take care of your health is to avoid stress or learn to manage it.
When work and responsibilities stress you out too much, try the following tips:
- Take 20-30 minutes a day to be outdoors close to nature and reduce stress hormones.
- Get regular exercise as it can be a great release.
- Practice meditation techniques in quiet places.
- Put aside troublesome habits like alcohol and tobacco.
conclusion
You can start the new year on the right foot if you follow our advice and give the necessary importance to your health problems. To do this, stop obsessing over your weight and enjoy life in the meantime by following these healthy tips.
References
- Fuentes Artiles, R., Staub, K., Aldakak, L., Eppenberger, P., Rühli, F. and Bender, N. (2019). Mindful eating and common diet programs lower body weight similarly: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Obesity reviews. doi: 10.1111 / obr.12918.
- Kang, Y. and Cai, Y. (2017). Gut microbiota and obesity: implications for fecal microbiota transplantation therapy. Hormones. doi: 10.14310 / horm.2002.1742
- Ness, KM, Strayer, SM, Nahmod, NG, Schade, MM, Chang, AM, Shearer, GC and Buxton, OM (2019). The Journal of Lipid Research. doi: 10.1194 / jlr.P094375
- Schaefer, JT and Magnuson, AB (2014). A review of interventions that promote eating by internal cues. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. doi: 10.1016 / j.jand.2013.12.024.
