The word diet often conjures up images of bland meals and skipping the dessert counter for the remainder of your natural life. The notion of missing out on the confectionary comestibles probably leaves you with virtually no appetite for dieting. Nevertheless, maintaining a well-balanced and healthy diet engenders numerous benefits for your overall wellness and energy level. Fortunately, you can have the best of both worlds by rewarding yourself one free day each week.
On your free day you are entitled to consume any amount of your favorite food throughout the day. The very next day you go back on your regimen. As long as you govern your diet and exercise program well, having a free day won't derail your program or ability to lose the weight. In fact, having a free day is encouraged by some of the top personal trainers and fitness gurus. Factoring the free day loophole into your diet helps you alleviate cravings. It also gives you something to look forward to so you can overcome temptations during the week. A free day is possible because if you follow your program closely during the rest of the week, you have likely consumed fewer than your allotted number of calories for the week. This way you can essentially "cheat" on your diet without undoing your progress.
A large number of diet programs, supplements, and gimmicks claim that you can lose weight and even spot reduce without having to give up your favorite foods. These magic weight loss methods also stress that you can obtain your ideal weight without sacrifice or willpower. The truth is any kind of lifestyle change such as a diet and fitness program requires a lot of self discipline and will power. To accomplish your fitness and weight loss goals, you need to develop a firm mindset and envision your successful results. Then you need to put the effort into achieving your goal.
Incorporating a free day into your diet and exercise program is valuable because it helps you strengthen the self discipline that's necessary to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. You achieve desired results not through deprivation but through taking control of your diet and nutritional needs. At the same time you are not allowing temptations and cravings get the best of you.
The key to earning a free day in your diet is to first reach your desired weight. This means you should postpone your free day allowance until you have lost the weight you want and are at the point of maintaining your ideal weight. If you grant yourself a free day at the onset of your weight loss program, it's too easy to slip up. You run the risk of inadvertently extending your free day by a half or even a full day. Before you know it, you have more free days than diet days.
Your free day doesn't need to be the same day each week. For example, if you plan to attend a social gathering where there will be a lot of tempting food items, you can schedule that day as your free day. Then you just go back to monitoring your caloric intake and following your exercise routine the rest of the week.
Successful weight loss and fitness does not mean condemning yourself to a life without eating foods you enjoy. The idea is to be in control and maintaining a proper balance by limiting your intake of foods that will thwart your ability to enjoy a healthy and energetic lifestyle.
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