Welcome back! We’re nearing the end of this series on Losing Weight For The Holidays and it might seem tempting to coast through the last week or so into New Year’s Day. Family is coming and cooking and shopping still isn’t finished and all the wrapping still is waiting for you. Oh yeah, there’s that little thing you have called a job that still needs to be done! It might just be easier to let the weight thing slide for now and pick it up again in the new year…

 

Don’t do it.

 

Put yourself forward a couple of weeks and check-in with yourself there. Would you look back at the extra cookies and overfull plates and lack of intention with peace or regret? That’s right – it’ll be regret. But you won’t regret holding a little space for yourself in all the busyness of the season. Everything won’t fall apart if you take care of yourself too!

 

 

So let’s get to it! This week I want to talk about “good” and “bad” foods. We all categorize food this way, even if we don’t say it consciously. We talk about certain desserts as “sinful” and “junk” food and other foods that are “good for you. There are two major problems with looking at food this way.

First, what is “good” food? Do we even really know? We think we do. For example, of course, fruit and veggies are good, right? But don’t eat bananas – they’re too high on the glycemic index. And tomatoes are an excellent source of lycopene, so they’re good. But they’re nightshade vegetables, which aren’t good for you, right? It gets confusing really fast!

The problem is two-fold. One, the diet industry has become a machine, churning out diet after diet that promises to be the magic that will cause your weight to fall off if you can just find the right one for you. So you search around like a lock looking for a key, frustrated when you can’t seem to find the one key that will unlock your weight loss.

Second, creating good and bad foods is a setup for our immature brain. It’s not your fault – we all have a part of our brain that acts like a teenager, immediately drawn to the forbidden and ready to break any rule you set. So when you set strict rules around food and make some completely forbidden, your brain rebels and wants them even more! When you’re on a diet and you “can’t” have cake or doughnuts or candy, that’s all your brain wants!

 

 

So what do we do?

 

First, eat food. If you’re doing what I teach and eating only when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re politely full, as long as you eat food you will lose weight. Make it easy – have some green beans and sweet potato, some sliced tomato, and a piece of chicken, and call it good.

Second, no forbidden foods. I know, some of you are screaming at me, “What about sugar and flour?! You said these can slow my weight loss – aren’t they evil?”

I did say that, and no, they aren’t evil.

People have been living off of bread for ages, so I don’t think flour is inherently evil. Also, we as people have over-refined real food to make highly processed flour and sugars. These act in our bodies in ways that create results we don’t want. Flour and sugar cause your hunger to increase, promote inflammation and make it harder to lose weight.

Harder, but not impossible.

You can eat bread and cake if you want. But, those foods eaten regularly might not produce the kind of weight loss you want. I recommend thinking of food in two categories: those that serve your goal and those that do not. You can have the ones that don’t serve your goal, but you might not choose them in order to get what you really want. When you think about food this way, you get to keep your power instead of giving it to the food. The food isn’t in control, you are!

 

 

So have a slice of pizza if you want. You probably won’t design your eating plan to be based around pizza, but you can choose to add it as a meal on occasion. Is one slice of pizza going to derail your plan? Nope. But snacking on cookies and having an extra drink every night and grabbing a doughnut from the breakroom regularly will. So decide on the food you will eat as a normal practice, and add in the exception food when YOU choose, not when it appears in front of you at work or in the store. You will create the key to the permanent weight loss you’re looking for!

 

You can lose weight! If you’re loving these concepts but feel like you need help getting them in place in your busy life, I’m here to help. Email me at drandreachristianparks@gmail.com and let’s set up your one-hour free consultation. I’ll help you clarify your vision and get you going toward your permanent weight loss goal!

 

Here’s your video help for the week!