Frequently, we receive information about new fantastic
diets, magical and wonderful food, stories of people who lost weight with the
least effort, devices which with only 5 minutes a day give you the body of a
model, etc. It's amazing the range of solutions
for a healthy life; the problem is that most of these strategies are designed
for financial gain rather than a benefit to health.
Unfortunately, lies disguised as acts of
magic abuse our desire to live better and sometimes fail, badly educate and
confuse those who want to reach a healthy weight, have a balanced life or just
feel better.
This time I chose the most common lies that have prevented
us in our attempts to improve our quality of life:
The Green Lie
How many times have we been sold the idea that if we
replace one meal (lunch or dinner) for a delicious salad, the path to thinness
is granted?. We prepare our salad and
eat in hopes of looser pants in a few days and we run into a horrible feeling:
hungry a few minutes later and the torture of waiting until dinner to eat
whatever we want. As the days pass, we
realize that our weight stays the same (or higher), we have been hungry for
days and expected results never come.
All we get is more frustration, moodiness and being starved for a few
hours every day.
The thing about the salad is that it doesn’t have the
correct ingredients to make us feel satisfied: protein or fat, so we will be
"starving" just a few minutes after we have finished eating and
"biting" snacks until the next meal where we will eat even more.
Another mistake is the dressing: we prepare a lettuce
salad with lemon and add several tablespoons of that delicious dressing that
gives us 300 calories and we end up eating the same amount of energy of a
hamburger. Our effort was lost…
Tip:
Include salads in your diet but add some protein like tofu, chicken, fresh
cheese and a little olive oil or your favorite dressing (1 tsp).
Activity Lies
Our generation has grown up with the belief that the
harder and longer we work out, the healthier and thinner we will be. Time magazine recently published that excessive
exercise (more than 45 minutes a day), can be counterproductive as it increases
your hunger, so you end up eating more calories than the ones you burned at the
gym. Also, people who perform strenuous workouts tend to be more sedentary
during the day than those doing small training periods.
Tip:
Find an activity you like and practice it 3-5 times a week for 30 minutes, it doesn’t
have to be cardio to be effective, there are other options such as dance, yoga,
pilates or walking that will give very good results without much effort . Nor
is it necessary to join a gym, there are many free online options that can be
tailored to your schedule, abilities and tastes.
Tired Lies
And finally, rest. This is an essential ingredient for
achieving a good quality of life and often we ignore it. We think that staying in bed an extra hour on
Sundays will make up for the 6 days we spent working instead of sleeping. Daily activities (being fun or not) wear you
down physical and emotionally. If we do
not learn to recover, the body will eventually charge us the bill. Rest is a habit that includes the mind and
body: It is better to sleep 30 extra minutes a day than staying in bed 3 hours
on a Sunday.
Tips:
Try to go to bed 30 minutes earlier than you are used to and read a book or
just relax. Meditation is a very useful
tool for resting the mind and you don’t have to be a spiritual person to get a
benefit.
Remember that a new habit is established after 6 months
of practice; choose comfortable and easy changes so they stay for good.
