Wild and Primal Weight - Loss Tips That Shed Pounds Without Tears

By Jon Rose


Are you on the weight-loss yo-yo. You try a new diet and shed a few pounds but the moment your willpower slips you find that the pounds just sneak back on. Sometimes you even end up heavier than you were before. Many of us find ourselves in the same situation. That is because dieting is a shock to the system. When we cut our calorie intake our bodies go into starvation mode and start trying to conserve as much energy as possible. The moment we come off the diet our bodies quickly pack away as much fat as they can in preparation for the next cycle of starvation.
Do not despair. It is possible to break this cycle and keep the weight off. But to break it you have to change your whole mindset and attitude. You cannot think about this as depriving yourself or as starving yourself. In fact, this is best thought of as not going on diet at all because you are not trying to conquer hunger. Instead, what you are trying to do is eat the same way our ancestors did thousands of years ago. In going back to a more primal way of eating and living we are in fact getting our bodies back in tune with millions of years of evolution. Many of the foods we find in stores today such as bread and pasta are relatively recent innovations that have only been with us for a few thousand years so little wonder then that our metabolisms have yet to learn to cope with them properly.
So here are some tips to help you eat a primal diet that can help you shift weight and keep it shifted.
1. Eat the way your ancestors ate. That means dropping all refined and processed products from your meal plans and go for simple things. Instead of refined starch eat salad. For a snack choose a carrot or some nuts over a baked muffin. Instead of processed meats such as sausage and salami go for the more natural form. Try a good steak or some homemade meatballs.
2. Avoid grains wherever possible and only consumer them in moderation. Grains such as wheat, rice and corn have become staples over the past few thousand years. Yet this carbohydrate-packed foods may be one of the biggest causes of our obesity epidemic because our bodies still struggle to cope with the jolt of sugar they provide. That causes our insulin levels to shoot up, grabbing all that sugar in the blood and turning it to fat. Soon our blood sugar levels will have slumped again causing hunger and sugar cravings.
3. Keep stoking the fires by having many little meals rather than just one or two big ones. Think of your body as a fire. Instead of sticking on one big log that causes flames to flare up and die down, you want to keep adding little logs at regular intervals. That will keep your metabolism ticking over and burning calories.
4. Choose foods that satisfy. A lot of research has shown that some foods, especially those that are high in carbohydrates, leave us only temporarily satiated before leaving us with a raging appetite. Others, such as nuts, often leave us feeling satisfied for hours. A big bowl of salad for breakfast will help you through the morning far better than a bowl of high-fibre cereal. And a handful of nuts eaten half an hour before a meal will help stave off food cravings and leave you eating less when you actually sit down to lunch or supper.
5. Do not cut to much fat from your diet. Many people assume that if they are trying to reduce the fat in the bellies that they should also reduce the amount they eat. In fact that is one of the great weight-loss myths. Dietary fat is both satisfying, meaning we want to eat less if we have some fat in our meal, and it helps encourage the body to burn fat. In contrast many of the low-fat dietary products in stores replace fat with sugar, which may be more harmful over the longer run.
Shedding the extra padding that we may have around our middles is never easy. No matter what people promise you, know that doing it successfully requires some effort and willpower on your part. But by adopting a wild or primal strategy of eating the way our ancestors did will improve your chances of success and will help you keep the pounds off without tears.
Jon Rose is the pen name of a journalist based in Europe who has covered business and financial markets for 15 years and has an interest in personal finance and the outdoors, travel and health. Click on the following links to read other articles he has written about mountaineering and travel.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jon_Rose


http://EzineArticles.com/?Wild-and-Primal-Weight---Loss-Tips-That-Shed-Pounds-Without-Tears&id=4390875