Know Your First Enemy For Fat Loss

Who is your #1 enemy when it comes to fat loss?  Is it carbohydrates?  Maybe it’s fat grams?  Your biggest opponent when it comes to weight loss is not any particular type of food.  It is you.  Or rather, it is your diet and exercise habits. 

Most of us who need to lose some weight really do want to experience fat loss.  Sometimes we even get together with our friends over lunch or dinner to commiserate about how important weight loss is.  We talk about the latest diets, and give each other advice about following the grapefruit diet, or the cabbage soup diet. 

Does this scenario sound familiar to you?  You and your friends going to start the latest fad diet tomorrow.  That’s why you’re enjoying a last meal now.  The super-sized combination meal with margaritas you’re having is your last hurrah before the drastic change to our eating habits tomorrow.

Of course, there’s an old saying about best intentions and where the lead.  The next day you have a lunch meeting with one of your clients at the local Italian restaurant.  For some reason, cabbage soup and grapefruit just aren’t on the menu anywhere. 

While you are getting ready to ask the waitress if the chef can prepare you a nice bowl of broth for lunch, she drops off a basket full of steaming hot fresh garlic bread, straight from the oven.  As you open your mouth to ask for broth, your taste buds pick up on the aroma from the bread. 

Oh well, you think.  Tomorrow is another day.  The cabbage soup solution will have to wait.  Since you’ve eaten the bread, you may as well order your favorite pasta with cream sauce.  You’ll be on a diet soon, and you won’t be able to have this rich and creamy dish any more.

That night on the phone, you commiserate with your friends.  Oh, you would have been so successful with your diet, if not for the bread.  The bread was the your #1 fat loss enemy today.  If you find yourself thinking these thoughts, ask yourself a few questions. 

What is the one constant every time you blame not sticking to your diet on a food or a particular situation?  Are you always at a birthday party when you break your diet?  Is it always a special occasion dinner?  Do doughnuts make you fail?  Do you know what is there every time you eat the wrong thing?

The only constant when you make poor food decisions is you.  You don’t sabotage your weight loss efforts on purpose.  You just aren’t approaching it the right way.  In the above examples, think about how many calories the fictional you consumed while getting ready for a diet. 

To successfully lose weight, you must adopt a healthy approach to eating that includes foods you love and fits into your lifestyle.  If part of your job involves having lunch with clients on a regular basis, it isn’t realistic to go on a very restrictive diet.

If you deny yourself access to the foods you love when dieting you will crave them even more.  When the cravings get too bad, you will give in and eat entirely too much when you give in.  The mindset becomes, I’m already cheating, so I may as well eat more. 

Remind yourself that the best diet slogan is, “all things in moderation.”  You need to stop focusing on going on a diet and instead work toward developing healthy eating habits that will allow you an opportunity to experience successful fat loss and long-term weight loss.