By Rohan Juvvadi
I used to have the same problem but finally found a solution for myself. There are two keys things I did that might be helpful to you.
First, you should not cut junk food off at once. Reduce it very gradually over the course of a month. For instance, if you eat lot of chips, eat 30 chips ( 10 at lunch, 10 in the evening and 10 during the night ) on day 1, 29 on day 2 ( reduce distribution during night ) and so on until you reach 0 chips on day 31. Same is the case for candy, soda etc (of course, don't eat/drink 30 candies/soda a day, but you get the gist) .
Second, you need to eat protein concentrated healthy food at regular intervals of time to prevent cravings. Usually we crave for unhealthy food when we are hungry. Eating a bunch of lean protein such as chicken breast, eggs etc will keep you satiated and keep cravings at bay. Eat 6 meals a day with a gap of 2 hours between each meal. Also, each meal must consist of a mix of lean protein, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates. For breakfast, I found that eating oats( along with skimmed milk, almond butter and blueberries) and 4 egg whites helped control my hunger for the rest of the day. Make sure you eat breakfast within one hour of waking up. For dinner, replace complex carbs with fibrous carbs such as veggies(mainly broccoli) and increase protein intake. If you can't go without eating carbs during night try eating hard boiled eggs(3 egg whites,1 whole egg) just before you go to sleep. Once you are used to eating clean, learn to control your calorie intake. Roughly, your metabolism is 14 times your weight in pounds ( given that you work out at least 3 times a week ) . Ideally you want to create a 500 - 600 calorie deficit each day in order to loose weight at a healthy rate. If you are a guy never eat less than 1600 calories a day. Women can go a little lower than that.
Along with diet, you also need to exercise at least 3 times a week. I used to have a tough time getting my lazy ass off the couch to go to the gym. I found that once I was at the gym I worked very hard. My problem was getting to the gym. My mind often used to trick me into not going because to it the whole process of getting up, changing, getting out of the house etc seemed like a rather long process. Solution? break the whole process into very small simple steps so that your mind just can't say no. Here are the steps that I follow before going to the gym.
- Get up from the couch. This is a very simple task and your brain can't say no.- Drink a glass of water. Another simple task.- Change into work out tracks. Simple enough?- Get into my running shoes. Simple?- Grab the car keys and before I know it, I am at the gym.
Remember, the key is to not think about the next step until you are done with the current task.
Go figure what your root cause is for not hitting the gym and follow a small routine made of very small and simple steps before you go to the gym. Make sure you follow the same routine every single time. This method can be used to break down any complex intimidating task.
Hope this helps.
