How to Avoid Feeling Deprived on a Diet
One of the hardest parts of losing weight is feeling deprived. You know you shouldn’t be eating “junk” foods – all the high-carb, high-fat, high-sugar stuff – but without it you feel depressed and bored. Who wants to exist on nothing but lettuce leaves and water?
Believe it or not, you DON’T have to give up the foods you love to lose weight. You just need to change the way you eat them, or find ways to make healthful versions of them.
Below are a few ideas to help you do that:
- Substitutions
There are endless ways to create more healthful versions of your favorite foods, and most often that will involve substituting some low calorie ingredients for higher calorie ingredients. For example, you could use lowfat cheese instead of whole milk cheese, use artificial sweeteners rather than sugar, or applesauce instead of oil when baking.
You can also substitute different foods altogether, like eating a baked apple instead of a candy bar, or carrot sticks instead of potato chips. As long as you enjoy the substitutions, you’ll be able to overcome the cravings for the higher calorie foods.
- Everything in Moderation
If you truly don’t want to give up or change your favorite foods, you can still enjoy them in their original form – just eat less of them. Reserve them for a treat once a week, or have just a bite or two rather than eating an entire serving.
Believe it or not, just one bite of something decadent can be truly satisfying if you tune into the experience and enjoy it for all it’s worth! Most of us don’t do that; we scarf down the food so fast we can barely taste it. Take your time! Savor every delicious bite and you’ll notice that it takes fewer bites to make you feel satisfied.
- Focus on the True Treat
If substitutions and small tastes of treats aren’t doing the trick, you might try tuning into the real treat – that svelte figure you are in the process of creating! Focus intently on how good you are going to look and feel when you reach your weight loss goal, and then ask yourself whether the few minutes of pleasure you get from eating something fattening is worth giving up your dream body? Even if this doesn’t completely dissolve your craving for fattening food, it may minimize it enough so you can stay true to your weight loss plan more easily.