So who doesn’t want to have a healthy lifestyle? Everybody does, so keep reading…
We are constantly bombarded with television commercials, print advertising, diet books, diet gurus and enough home fitness equipment to open up our very own gym. What is a would-be dieter really to do? What should you believe?
Well, this article is about the things you are not supposed to do if you want to live a healthy lifestyle.
[spoiler title=”tl;dr – click to read summary” style=”fancy”] If you want to live a healthy lifestyle, you shouldn’t do the following: have severe calorie restriction, too much cardiovascular exercises, skipping strength training, skipping meals,taking magic burning pills, jumping on the latest diet band wagon. All you need is a common sense to have a healthy lifestyle. [/spoiler]
Avoid things below that are not healthy for you:
Severe Caloric Restriction
You’ve got to eat. Far too many people make the mistake of restricting their calories too severely. Your body requires fuel to simply function and also to support your exercise program. If you deprive your body of adequate nutrition, your body will turn to other sources (like lean muscle tissue) for fuel. Failing to eat enough will probably cause you to lose weight, but you’ll lose fingernails, hair and bone density as well.
Too Much Cardiovascular Exercise
You’ve seen the men and women at the gym who are draped over the stairmaster. Hair matted down, shirt soaking wet and an unmistakable aura of desperation. If you cannot finish your cardio workout with proper form, you need to tone down the intensity or the length. Draping oneself over a cardio machine or clutching onto the guardrails for dear life is not recommended, nor is it a good workout.
Skipping Strength Training
Women are especially guilty of this one. Muscle tissue requires more calories to maintain itself than fatty tissue does. Strength training builds muscle. Therefore, if you increase the amount of lean muscle tissue, you will be able to eat more! Isn’t that beautiful? Additionally, weight-bearing exercises are critical for bone health. If you aren’t sure about form, hire a personal trainer for a session or two to get you started.
Skipping Meals
This one goes hand-in-hand with severe calorie restriction. Think about it… if you skip breakfast in an effort to lessen your calorie intake, you will be positively ravenous by lunchtime and much more likely to overeat. However, if you’ve had breakfast and a small snack, your hunger levels and blood sugar will be stable. This is why fitness professionals keep advocating smaller meals. Eating frequently throughout the day will keep both hunger and grouchiness at bay.
Taking Magic Fat Burning Pills
If you haven’t actually purchased any, you may have at least picked them up in the grocery store. It is tempting and that little voice inside your head could be saying, “What if THIS ONE really works?” The most logical thing to do is step away from this magic fat burning pills. Take comfort in knowing that magic fat burning pills are nothing but a bunch of long marketing words strung together by a supplement company in the hope of making money. Rest assured that if there really WERE magic fat burning pills, we’d all look like supermodels.
Jumping on the Latest Diet Bandwagon
ANYONE can drink shakes/abandon bread/eat cabbage soup/drink a shot of pineapple juice before and after each meal for at least a couple weeks. But come on, folks. This is about a lifestyle change. We all know that diet fads are fleeting and once we stop the trend, old habits re-emerge and we’re back to square one. Weight loss requires a lifestyle change and it’s got to be doable. It’s absolutely fine to follow guidelines, but look for plans that follow a reasonable and balanced approach. If you tilt your head and say “Really?” upon reading that banana is a fruit that cures all diseases, that ought to tell you something.
There is actually a silver bullet for weight loss – it’s called common sense. Does it seem odd that diet gurus are telling you to never eat another piece of bread for as long as you live? Does it seem strange that a company would promise amazing results inside of a tiny white capsule? It should. If something makes you think twice, there’s probably good reason for it.
Balance and moderation. It’s boring. It’s not sexy. But that’s it right there. And you don’t even need a book or a pill or a pantry stocked with low carb bread.
