How Not to Sabotage Your Weight Loss Goals

By Laura Mierzwa, Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Culinary Nutrition Expert

If you’re one of the many wanting to shed a few pounds before the summer or are working on fitting into that wedding dress, than this post is especially fitting for you! The constant ups and downs of fad diets is a sure fire way to fail on your weight loss journey. Not only does the horrible feeling of failing kick in, you are doing considerable damage to your mental health and gut health!

Having the idea in your head that you need to eat this one specific way 100% of the time and then “falling off the wagon” has serious effects on how we feel about ourselves and greatly diminishes self-confidence, especially in women. This is why so many women get caught up in the yo-yo diet culture and get stuck, seriously stuck. You stick to your “diet” for a week, but then the weekend rolls around and you have a piece of your favourite cake. Well you already blew the diet, so why not have pizza the next day. Then the guilt kicks in.

Instead of feeling guilty and getting lost in the modern diet culture cycle, pick yourself back up and remember that life happens. No ones diet is going to be picture perfect, and the worst thing you can do is beat yourself up over it. I tell many of my clients who claim they have “fallen off the wagon”, to start fresh right away and get into a positive mind-set. It’s all about the small, healthy habits you include every day that amount to big changes. If we don’t dust ourselves off and we stay on that slippery slope of unhealthy eating, we’re over feeding the body processed foods that cause detrimental damage to our gut health, which in turn affects everything from weight loss, mood, sleep and energy!

Next time the weekend rolls around and you have that piece of cake, remember that it’s not the beginning of the end. Imagine it as a small speed bump along the way, nothing that you won’t recover from by continuing to eat healthy, nourishing foods for the rest of your week. Take a deep breath, relax, plan your next meal and drink some water. What does a nourishing diet look like you ask?

What it should look like 80-90% of the time:

• organic whole foods like veggies and fruits
• good quality animal products like chicken, grass fed beef, pork, free range eggs, grass fed cheeses, ghee, wild fish
• fermented foods such as kimchi, sauerkraut, coconut yogurt, grass fed yogurt
• some gluten free grains like rice, quinoa, millet and buckwheat
• some beans and legumes like chickpeas, lentils, black beans and navy beans
• nuts and seeds like almonds, cashews, chia, hemp, sunflower, pumpkin
• sweeteners like maple syrup and honey in moderation

And of course, depending on the person and their specific health concerns, there will be some specific adjustments, but in general REAL FOOD!

Lucky for you, the Nutritionists at NutriChem are running a totally free 14-Day Real Food Challenge and I want you to join us! Here are the perks:

Lose weight

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Sleep better

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Cultivate healthy habits

Learn real food recipes

Get a free e-book

Join the challenge today by joining the NutriChem Nutrition group