DON'T WISH FOR IT. WORK FOR IT.

“I eat healthy diet but I can’t seem to lose any weight.”  Does that sound familiar? It is probably one of the most common things I hear from my friends and clients.  When I ask them what they eat during the day, they usually say, ”I have cereal for breakfast with orange juice, a turkey sandwich for lunch and a lean cuisine for dinner.”  My immediate reaction is “I can tell you exactly why you are not losing fat,” to which their reply always is, “What do you mean?  My diet is extreme healthy.”  Then I begin my usual spiel: healthy foods are not always fat loss foods.  

What do I mean by this?  Well, sure you can say that orange juice and Kashi Go Lean cereal is relatively healthy, but it’s not helping you lose any fat.  When you eat these foods first thing in the morning you are basically eating a straight sugar bomb!  Your body reacts by spiking insulin levels to deal with the influx of a large amount of carbohydrates and then not too long after, your levels will drop causing you to feel hungry again.  Thus, leading you to grab another sugar filled snack in an hour, setting you up for this vicious cycle all day.  

Once you realize that a fat loss diet is different from a healthy diet, it can help make a huge difference in your efforts to attain the body you want.  When eating a fat loss diet your mantra should be protein, fiber, water.  You want to give your body enough calories to give yourself energy and control your cravings and hunger without slowing your metabolic fat burning.  It is a careful balance that you need to play with that means controlling your insulin levels with a higher ratio of fiber and protein relative to carbohydrates.  Now, this does not mean that you are cutting out carbohydrates completely; there are many carbohydrates that are fat loss friendly.  No diet that is sustainable takes out a whole food group.  

So, what should you be eating?  Take the typical breakfast we were talking about earlier.  Two cups of cereal, orange juice, and milk vs. 6 egg white omelet, 1 cup of spinach, 1 cup of mushrooms, 1 cup of berries and 16 oz green tea.  The egg white omelet meal seems like a lot of food - you probably couldn’t even eat that much!  However, that omelet has less calories then the cereal and will help to keep you full longer.  That is fat loss eating!

Does it sound like you can start eating more of a fat loss diet instead of just a healthy diet?  Just to let you know, all fat loss foods are healthy so you don’t have to worry about that.  Take a minute to look at what you eat all day.  Think about changing your meals around to focus on eating lean protein at every meal, like chicken, turkey, lean grass fed meats, eggs and fish.  Then fill your plate with fibrous vegetables like broccoli, brussels sprouts, spinach, etc.  Then give yourself about 20-30 grams of a fat loss friendly starchy carb like 1/2 sweet potato or 1/2 cup of oatmeal.  Start with those basics and you will be on your way to fat loss!

Join me in my 4 Weeks to Summer Fat Loss program and start your fat loss journey today!

In health and happiness, 

Sabrina Sarabella