Making smart choices when food shopping

Many people are interested in eating healthier, but with thousands of products lining grocery store shelves, choosing the right foods can be overwhelming.

What is “healthy”? What does “natural” mean? What are foods labels actually saying?  It can be confusing regardless of whether you shop in supermarkets or local grocery stores.

Buying, and of course eating, the right food is crucial part of my approach to weight loss.

Eat Like Me approach ensures weight loss and at the same time contributes toward healthy life style. I don’t offer any advice how to be more confident in the kitchen, because I don’t cook. The most complicated meal I can cook is scrambles eggs.

I buy and eat food that gives my body the nutrients it needs and helps me lose weight. I shop for food once a week on weekend. Shopping when I am not hungry or rushed for time helps. I plan what food I need to buy and stick to my shopping list.

The key to successful food buying when you try to lose weight is planning ahead.

Easiest part of my eating routine

Breakfast is the easiest part for me.

It is the part of the Eat Like Me approach that works very well for me. I can honestly say that it is super easy - for me.

It appears effortless in weight loss terms and I have no problems with maintaining 100% compliance. Unless I travel.

It is easy, does not require a lot of thinking about it and it takes little time to make. 

Posting the picture of what I had for breakfast today.

Your body is like an engine

Your body is an engine that combusts nutrients  and turns them into energy.

Efficient body engine is essential to eating satisfaction and maintenance of a healthy weight.

Body engine running at peak keeps up a stable burn that provides energy throughout the day and contributes to a good sleep.

To run at peak it needs nutrient rich food.

In contrast,a body engine running suboptimally generates cravings and urges to binge.

It is demanding fuel between meals. It practically is always wanting food. 

If your diet is poor your engine will not get many miles to the gallon.

Focus on nutrition.

Eating less processed foods and more real foods will immediately improve your nutrition profile and give your engine a boost.

What you can do now

There are many things that you can do to lose weight. What worked for me was changing “everything” overnight, but everybody is different, and different things work best for different people.

While every day is best to start losing weight, starting weight loss in the middle of holiday season is probably more challenging.

Since you are reading this, it means that you are thinking about weight loss. I propose that you use the motivation or concern that brought you here and start doing something now.

What you can do is to stop drinking sugary drinks and drinking more water instead. Yes, it means no soda from now on.

While it will not cause you to lose weight, it will be a big change for start and it will prove to you that change is possible. It will prove to you that change can be done and that you are doing it.

You will experience the satisfaction and empowerment that come from targeting an action, following through, and building a positive new habit. 

Since this change is easy, you will be successful. It will also set your mind that you are already doing something.

Experiencing success builds confidence and motivation. Feeling successful will serve as a constant reminder that change is possible and will help you, when you decide to take action to lose weight.

Do not make terrible mistake by switching to diet soda.  Stop drinking sugary drinks now.

Learning how to eat well

My experience demonstrated that rapid weight loss is possible and sustainable. The best part about the approach that works for me is that I do not have to weight my food, measure portions or count/record calories.

Contrary to conventional thinking, it is not how much you eat that determines you weight; it is what you eat.

Learning how to eat well, what to eat to fill your stomach with foods that have a high nutrient density and are low in calories is worthy. It will allow you to eat however much you want whole losing weight. You will gain a simple and effective strategy to achieve and maintain weight loss without feeling hungry for the rest of your life.

I learned how to enjoy my eating approach and it helped me create healthy behaviors that eventually became effortless. It changed me in a natural fashion and became my proffered way of eating. The change was successful and shows every sign of being permanent.

How mantra worked for me

What is a mantra? Mantra is a simple word or a phrase to repeat. It is a phrase that, when regularly repeated, becomes a genuinely held belief.

For me, using mantra was very effective, especially when I was about to deviate from my eating plan or engage in emotional eating. I used my mantra and it worked 100% every single day. When I was tempted to eat something that would not support my weight loss goals, I would say to myself “Do you want to have an open-heart surgery?” Asking that question set me straight right away. It refocused my thinking on why I was trying to lose weight.

That mantra was very effective for me. It always worked during the first few months of my weight loss efforts. When facing a challenging situation, it helped me stick to my eating plan and make right choice related to food selection.

Using mantra shifted my mindset when needed. It strengthened my motivation. It was like a life-line for me.

Find a phrase or quote that works for you, then repeat as needed. The act of repeating those words can energize you and positively influence your thinking.  It may give you that extra momentum you need by increasing your motivation, or/and prevent you from making a poor choice when deciding what to eat.

Pattern of weight loss

The pattern of weight loss - how much you lose and when - is not a significant factor for weight regain.

It’s a simple fact that when you stop whatever you are doing to lose/maintain weight, you will start gaining weight back.

Many people lost weight, only to regain it again because they went back to eating foods that made them overweight or obese before. That is the main reason for weight loss/regain cycle.

The pattern of weight loss is very important during weight loss attempts.  When you see the results early in the process, you gain more confidence that what you are doing is working and it will motivate you to continue.