The ultimate dilemma dieters face: How to successfully lose weight without sacrificing good health. You've probably heard of diet fads and pills that offer miraculous weight loss promises but may prove to be detrimental to your health after all. Also, most of these fad diets may seem to be effective at the onset, but won't last for long – anybody heard of yoyo syndromes?
So here the question hangs: How can you lose weight without losing vitamins and minerals?
1. Plan your meals carefully.
If you had an expensive car, for example, you'd be careful about which gas to put into it. Now think of your body as something that's even more valuable than all the cars in the world. You wouldn't want to feed it just anything now, would you? It's important that you carefully choose every food that you put in your body. Read about which foods offer the highest amounts of nutrients (superfoods); find out which have antioxidant properties; learn about which food would fulfill just what your body needs.
The best thing about being healthy is that the most healthful foods are usually the ones which contain the least amount of calories. Replace chips with fruit; drink water or tea instead of soda; eat whole wheat bread instead of the more processed versions. Give yourself some time to adjust to these new foods; over time you get an acquired taste for healthy food. Your body will thank you for it.
2. Aim for long-term health.
While dieters may seem to be single-minded and only think about losing as much weight in as short a time as possible, the healthier and more effective method is to aim for long-term health and fitness. So instead of engaging in crash-diets to get you thin just in time for your college reunion, aim for long-term health that will sustain you throughout your life. With your doctor, craft a lifestyle that fully benefits your body: regular exercise, well-maintained diet, avoidance of food and other toxins that are harmful to your body. After a while, you will be pleasantly surprised to find out that not only are you experiencing better health and higher resistance to disease, you would have lost a lot of excess weight as well.
3. Take supplements.
Consult your doctor about taking nutritional supplements to ensure that you will get the vitamins your body needs in the most convenient way possible. Some vitamin supplements commonly recommended include calcium, vitamin B12, and vitamin D. You could also choose to take multivitamins to get most of the recommended vitamins in balanced doses. If you are expecting a child, you could opt to take prenatal vitamins as steps towards ensuring that your child too will be getting the optimal development he needs. These prenatal vitamins include folic acid (to reduce your baby's chances of having brain or spinal cord defects), iron (for both your and your baby's blood) and calcium (to help prevent bone density loss). Remember to consult your doctor about which supplements to take, in which dosage and how frequently.
4. Avoid food cravings.
Food cravings strike everyone; the key here is to know how to not give in to them. Some ways to avoid food cravings include trying to fill yourself up with liquid (preferably water) since sometimes what we perceive to be hunger is in fact thirst; getting rid of all possible food temptations; finding a strong motivation to help you stay on track with your diet.
The key to losing weight without losing vitamins and minerals is to remember that good health and proper weight go hand-in-hand. Good luck and happy dieting!
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