Most people would love to obtain the ideal of what it means to be fit, but it’s not an easy thing to do. Fitness is a lifestyle. It’s not a fad. It’s not something that you are passionate about for 2 months and then fall of the train to not get back on until New Year’s resolutions kick in. Fitness requires all of you and it requires you to make changes in your day to day life to make room for the amount of focus and time you have to put in at the gym as well as in the kitchen.
Everybody has different body chemistry, so it’s important that throughout the process you listen to the signals your body is sending you so that don’t push yourself past what your body is able to bear at any current point in time.
If you’re wanting to optimize your weightloss efforts to achieve maximum results long term, try doing these things:
Wean Yourself Off Certain Foods Systematically
For most people, a diet will last an average of about two weeks. At this point, any weight that was lost gets piled back on and often more is gained because the body was shocked by the cutting of calories and the severity of workouts. To achieve weight loss success long term, it’s important that you wean yourself off of certain foods overtime.
Going cold turkey any anything rarely works because the chemistry of the body and mind together are a force that is hard to reckon with. Try starting with cutting the breads and instead eat things like rice, quinoa, and other whole grains. Once you have a handle on that, cut back on the processed sugars and continue in this fashion until you’ve created a new way of cooking and eating for yourself.
Prepare Your Body Before and After Workouts
The body gets the energy it needs from the food that you eat. It’s no surprise that if you’re cutting carbs completely and only eating vegetables and chicken that you’re going to have a bit of trouble pushing yourself at the gym. If you want to lose weight and be able to build lean muscle, you have to prepare your body before and after workouts.
This means you fuel your body prior to hitting the gym, if you’re at the gym for a long time, you bring a light snack to fuel you in the middle of your workout, and as soon as you get done, you replenish your body with protein and vitamins. If you don’t eat foods full of good fat, protein and complex carbs, your body is going to turn to burning muscle before fat to get the energy it’s looking for.