Are you putting in the work but not seeing the results?
~5 minute read
We all have our go-to “treat food” that, as hard as we try, is so hard to resist. 🍔 If you’re looking to reach your ideal weight, there’s nothing wrong with indulging every once in a while. However, it’s important to be aware of how often it’s happening and make sure it’s not sabotaging our weight-loss efforts.
For people over 50, nutrition becomes increasingly more important when it comes to accomplishing our fitness goals. As our metabolism slows down the idea of “burning off” some less-than-ideal food choices can become seemingly impossible. 😢
That’s why we want to have a way to stay aware of what we’re taking in and how much. 🔎
Quitting ‘cold-turkey’ is often an unrealistic method of introducing change into our lives. In theory it’s great for quick results, however, it typically only lasts a few days to a couple of weeks before we fall back into our old habits or give up entirely. 😔
Our Treat Food Reduction Tool (that you can download here) will make it easier to reach your desired weight by giving you a better understanding of how many excess calories you consume when deviating from your nutrition plan. Awareness is the first step towards the changes we need to make! 😀
How it works 🧐
Identify one treat food you think will be relatively easy to reduce. Some is better than none.
Perform an online search to determine the calorie amounts. Be as precise as possible with quantities and the details.
Identify the days of the week you’ll reduce it and stick to the plan. The more you reduce the more change you will see.
Be as accurate as possible. There’s no judgement and nobody’s perfect.
Set yourself up for success not failure (i.e. be realistic).
Once we have become successful with one treat, we can work on cutting it out entirely or adding more treat foods to the list for greater results. More effort = more change.
This method works best when we also focus on increasing our intake of nutrient-rich foods like lean proteins, healthy fats, smart carbs, fruits and vegetables.
Consider using this method for unhealthy meals as well 🍟 🍕🌭 (not just snack foods). This will increase our awareness of how often we eat meals that have little-to-no nutritional value (ie. pizza, burgers, nachos etc.) and provide us with an opportunity to improve our diet all around! 🥗
Have you seen our new promotional video yet? Watch our video for a look behind the scenes at Evertrain.
Example 🍪🍪🍪
Let’s use the example of eating 3 chocolate chip cookies after dinner every day.
3 cookies/day X 123 cals/cookie= 369 cals/day.
369 cals/day X 7 days = 2,583 calories per week.
If we reduce the consumption to Monday, Wednesday and Friday instead of all 7 days:
369 cals/day X 3 days/week = 1107 calories/week.
This small change would reduce our weekly caloric intake by: 2583-1107= 1,476 calories.
To put this into perspective 🔎, one pound of fat is approximately 3500 calories. If we reduce our cookie eating to 3 days a week rather than 7, we could potentially lose 1 lb of fat in about 2 and a half weeks with almost no physical effort!
*assuming we don’t replace those cookies with another unhealthy snack food*
If you need advice on how to improve your intake of nutrient-rich foods and how to conveniently plan healthy meals, check out my other blog post here 👉👉 “Meal planning simplified 👩🍳 👨🍳”!
Tips to Keep Cheat Foods Under Control 👍
1. Evaluate your pantry and perform a kitchen make over- How many junk foods (non-health promoting foods) can you find? Which foods need to go? Which nutrient-dense foods do you need to buy more of?
2. Identify your triggers - (i.e. stress, lack of sleep, people, place, time of day, etc.) and work on improving them to set better habits.
3. Put quality above quantity - Use the red, yellow and green light system to put quality first. (Red = keep out of the house. Green = have in the house. Yellow = only on occasion.)
4. Be nice to yourself 😀- Criticizing your self and crash diets may possibly work in the short term, but they don’t work in the long run. Being kind to yourself allows you to work with yourself instead of against yourself.
We know losing weight after 50 seems like a tall task. At Evertrain, we’ve helped hundreds of people over 50 reach their ideal weight over 7+ years. If you’re looking for more health and nutrition advice, or need help staying accountable, schedule a FREE consultation with an Evertrain Success Coach by clicking on the button below. 👇
Committed to your success, 👨🍳
Brandon - Online Personal Training Expert, Neuroscience and Mental Health graduate and Triathlete