After doing research on bodybuilding foods, clean eating and generally what foods work best with your body I have noticed a pattern. The people who don't struggle to lose weight eat the same or similar foods to each other, and the people that DO struggle also eat the same as each other. Coincidence? I think NOT! I have had a fair bit of experience with Yo-Yo dieting, so please don't judge me as 'holier than thou' with what I am about to say! I don't consider myself better than anyone else, I would just like to share what I have learned along my fluctuative journey:
The people who do NOT struggle to lose weight are eating super foods like Sweet Potato, Pears, Cottage Cheese, a variety of fruits and vegetables, protein powders and complex carbohydrates such as whole grain breads, pastas and rice and oats etc. And they EAT!
Compared to the other side who restrict their bodies to the bare minimum caloric intake (supposedly to lose the largest possible amount of weight), will eat various forms of disguised added sugar in flavoured yoghurts, biscuits etc. These people invariably skip breakfast or have something not worth the calories and as such, are starving for something refined again by morning tea! I have also noticed that a lot of their foods come in packages, including their vegetables, and they're prone to eating sauces high in sodium, sugar or fat on top.
Now please, before I go on, I do understand that there are those people struggling to lose weight due to a medical condition and not due to the factors I have pointed out above. But I am talking about those people who restrict their diet to such few calories that their bodies can hardly survive (believe me, I was one of them!) and then when they do eat, it is foods that are heavily processed and refined and really have no nutritional content whatsoever!
I have a favourite celebrity Dr here in Australia. His name is Dr John Tickell. He's of the notion of low HI foods and not just low GI foods. HI stands for Human Interfered. So what he suggests is that we go back to nature and eat foods that haven't been touched by humans "much" such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and meat/fish/chicken etc. Since using this
I have made mistakes in the past thinking this is a DIET. But really, when you eat like this, it's a WAY OF LIFE. This is a sustainable eating plan that shows you don't have to cut out good food to lose weight - i.e. the dreaded C word (carbohydrates!). I have, in the past avoided carbs like the plague! Anything with sugar in it, including fruit I wouldn't touch. As such, when I hit maintenance the first time after losing 22 kg, I gained 10 again quickly... Very quickly!
So now that I've had my ramble, I would like to tell you that I have learned my lesson and please, don't make the same mistake I made. Do some research, particularly bodybuilding (it's not just for them!) and read up on the foods that give you the best chance your body needs! Go back to nature and find out how good you will feel!
xxx Until next time, Louise
