Traditional diets suck.

They do not work and can actually leave us in worse shape than when we started!
Read on to learn these 3 powerful methods to lose weight without dieting!

Traditional diets leave us in a constant state of discomfort.

How in the world can we expect to feel good when we are always hungry? 

Then there is the guilt, shame, and anger when we find ourselves on a comfort food binge. 

After months of depriving ourselves, our clothes still do not fit and we end up feeling depressed and defeated.

I have been on more diets than I can count over the years and they all have one thing in common:

They made me miserable and caused me to gain more weight in the long run.

I have tried reducing carbs, restricting calories, limiting portion size and even fasting!

All of them ended up the same way. I was hungry; no starving! 

It ended with me stuffing myself with a binge until I felt full again.

Sometimes that need for fullness took a week or more to achieve and left me with more weight than I started with!

There are hundreds, maybe thousands of diets available and they all lead us to believe we will easily lose weight without being hungry.

They Lie!

The only way to lose weight without dieting is to rebuild our bodies ability to trust us again. 

What most diets look like.

Image by Vidmir Raic via Pixabay

Its Time To Stop The Madness!

There is only one way to ditch the diet mentality along with the pain that goes with it. We must teach ourselves to focus on nutrition. Enjoying clean, healthy and wholesome food nourishes our body on every level. This is key to being able to lose weight without dieting!

When we do this, our attitude and emotions around food begin to change dramatically.

The most gratifying part of this is finally losing that excess weight, forever!

What could be better than discovering that serving our bodies’ needs is actually the best way to accomplish sustainable weight loss?

Method # 1:
Have We Forgotten How To Enjoy Our Food?

How Mindful Eating Works

Most of us rush through our meals. We may spend hours preparing it, only to see it disappear within minutes! 

There are so many things that happen behind the scenes when we prepare to eat! 

Gastric juices are stimulated when we are hungry. Simply smelling the food is a powerful trigger that begins the digestive process way before we begin eating. 

Paying attention to the sensations we experience before and during our meal is called Mindful Eating.

• Taking small bites
• Setting the fork down between bites
• Chewing the food completely before swallowing

All of these things add to our satisfaction levels.

Equally important is the fact that Enjoying conversation with family or friends between bites can be the difference between eating too much and eating just the right amount to satisfy our appetite.

It takes about 20 minutes for our bodies to register that sense of ‘fullness’. 

Another way to gain satiety through mindful eating is to pay attention! 

How does the food taste?
Is the texture soft or crunchy?
Is it sweet, salty or savory?

Mindfully experiencing your meal has some long term benefits that will enable you to lose weight without dieting. This will pay out big time over the long haul. 

Consider this as well: You are important enough to set aside some quality time for both enjoying and experiencing the health benefits of your meal!

Using Mindful Eating to Lose Weight

Mindful eating works because you become friends with both your body’s needs and with the food you are eating. 

Becoming full before the meal has ended is the first thing that you will notice when you practice Mindful Eating.

You will become tuned in to the types of food your body is craving, and begin to understand why the craving exists.
It is important to understand that many of our cravings are a signal that we are lacking in one or more nutrients.

For instance;

*Craving chocolate may mean that we need Magnesium. Try eating nuts, seeds or a piece of dark, organic chocolate.
*Cravings for sugar may indicate a need for more chromium, carbon, phosphorus or sulfur. Try fresh fruit, chicken, beef, fatty fish, eggs, dairy, nuts or fresh veggies.
*Attracted to chips or pretzels? You may need chloride or silicon! Try some sunflower seeds, nuts or yogurt.

It may be that we are simply a bit dehydrated and need some water!

As you increase the quality of nutrients, your body will stop thinking you are starving.

Prolonged hunger decreases our metabolism and increases our instinct to get some fast and easy fuel. Sugar, salt and fat are the easiest fuels to survive on.

This is the primary reason why restrictive diets cannot work. We are not capable of successfully overruling this instinct! 

As you learn your body’s unique language, you may even find yourself forgetting to snack during the in-between meal times!

Practice this at your next meal:

1. Turn off the TV and silence your phone. 
2. Focus on the food you are eating, mindfully. 
3. Savor the simple joy of how the food makes you feel.

Method #2:
Our Intuition Is Smarter Then We Are!

What is intuitive eating?

The next method of healthy weight loss is understanding that our body knows instinctively what it needs.

Tuning in this instead of trying to block it is called Intuitive Eating.

Using intuitive eating along with mindful eating is a very powerful combination that will enable us to lose weight without dieting! 

When we eat intuitively, we are learning to listen to our body telling us what it needs.

When we begin to eat intuitively, we will naturally lose weight. This happens because we are giving our body the nutrients and fuel it needs to function properly. 

1. We learn to listen to our body
2. It teaches us patience. This is a lifestyle, not a diet!
3. We begin to interpret cravings and identify emotional triggers. 

Sometimes, we are not actually hungry when we experience cravings.
We may need to patch a relationship, get out of denial about a circumstance or maybe declutter our environment.

Learning to take emotional inventory during a craving, and take steps to heal what hurts is how we eat intuitively. We learn our ‘hunger language’ and separate our emotions from our actual need for food.

Try to remember this is not just about losing a lot of weight or reaching a certain size. It is a lifetime relationship.

Listening to Your Body

You will first need to learn how to listen to your body, which is the most important part of intuitive eating, but also the most difficult. People who are going from yo-yo diets to this way of eating find many challenges.
You fear gaining back all the weight you lost, and struggle with suddenly being allowed to eat whatever you want without guilt or regret.
The most important thing to remember is this – everything will even out and level out in time.
In the beginning, you just focus on satisfying the bodies healthy need for food. The purpose of this is to heal your relationship with food and rebuild trust with your bodies intuition.

Then you go through the other stages of eating, like listening to your body, understanding the difference between being full or remaining hungry due to poor quality food, or using comfort food to soothe emotional issues. 

It Doesn’t Happen Overnight

This is not a quick fix. You are beginning a life long journey of healing and longevity. You are healing your relationship with food, nourishing your body, and getting rid of that diet mentality.
What you need is patience, the determination to treat yourself with kindness, and the understanding that you will be healing your body from the inside out.

Method #3:
Forcing Ourselves To Exercise Is A Sure Path To Defeat.

Changing Your Mindset About Fitness

The next method we need to address is fitness.

Exercise should not be seen so much as a way to lose weight, but rather as a way to increase metabolism and gain both strength and endurance. Regularly moving and exercising your body will help you to lose weight without dieting, over time.

If you are going to incorporate a strong and properly functioning state of health, fitness absolutely needs to be included in our healthy lifestyle.

The problem is that we have been brainwashed into believing fitness is a chore and we must force ourselves to ‘workout’.

This is not the way to succeed!

Find Exercises You Love

Staying active is a much better way to describe a well-developed fitness routine. 

What do you love to do?

Dance? Hike? Explore? Swim? Yoga?

Make a list of all the activities you enjoyed that involve movement over the past year. 

What would your life be like if you chose just one of those things each day to enjoy?

Fitness should be fun. Getting in the habit of taking a walk at a certain time each day, or just taking 5 minutes to dance to your favorite song is the best way to find what you love and stick with it.

The most important thing is not to use force. Learn to enjoy your fitness routine.

Stop Feeling Forced to Exercise

Taking the time to discover what you love to do is crucial to getting out of the ‘force’ mode…and into the ‘fun’ mode.

This can be much simpler then you think!

Here are some ideas that have worked for me in the past:

1. Make an awesome play list to use on walks or during exercise. 
2. Use earphones to help maintain focus and minimize distractions. 
3. Listen to your favorite podcast while doing something active
4. Learn how to do ‘walking meditation’ to increase your awareness and enjoyment.
5. Park as far away from the entrance to work, shopping or any other place you visit. Use the extra time to plot your visit.

Remember that losing weight without dieting is a lifestyle. As you incorporate the things that bring health and satiety, you will be surprised to find the weight is no longer an issue!

Your body has its own intelligence

Over time, you will begin to learn how to respect your body’s ability to tell you what it needs by using these 3 powerful ways to lose weight without dieting!

When we have spent many years training our body to obey restrictions and narrow food choices, there will be some challenges. There is a very natural fear that you will gain weight when you are suddenly allowed to eat freely. Banishing guilt and regret may be the most difficult part! 

Be reassured that everything will level out over time. Your job, in the beginning, is to focus on eating what your body is craving. The purpose of this is to heal your relationship with your body and with food. 

Be aware of food quality, chemicals, concentrates, and sodium. Read labels and get familiar with the best version of the foods you love. 

You will slowly begin to select the products that bring you the most food satisfaction and reduce the cravings. This will be the most important step you take. 

Meanwhile, you will be learning your body’s unique language and lose the cravings as you begin to provide what you actually need to both enjoy eating and provide nourishment that gives you satisfaction.

No diet works overnight and changing your nutrition lifestyle won’t either.

It may even take a bit longer to see significant weight loss, but you are creating happiness and longevity with this practice. It is going to heal your relationship with food and allow your body to trust you again.

What you need most of all is patience. Be kind to yourself and nurture the understanding that you are healing your body from the inside out.