The men and women who say they know everything about getting slim and prescribe diets for us are falling over each other. Everyone knows better and we have eagerly used all those gurus in the field of nutrition for years. But it seems like we’re done with it and that’s actually not a bad thing. Not so much because people let it go, but because they know a lot themselves and can use common sense. Common sense where healthy food, exercise and some tricks can play a role. Food is part of life and by being obsessed with it, you deprive yourself of an enjoyable part of life. In addition, we now know that diets do not change your lifestyle, they only make you lose a few kilos for a short or longer period of time.

The base

You lay the foundation by approaching nutrition with common sense. For example, sugar can be a nice fattener, but it is not as black and white as stated. Eating a cookie with coffee won’t kill you, but regularly eating a whole pack is the opposite. This also applies to other carbohydrates, fats or wine. Balance in your life is important and so is your diet.A healthy diet is a varied pattern. You need carbohydrates to function and it is wise to look at which carbohydrates to take. For example, if you are making a pasta meal, use whole wheat pasta instead of white pasta. Fats are important, but take good fats in the form of vegetable fats and a piece of oily fish every now and then. This contains omega 3 and you need that for your body. And so on.It’s fine to enjoy a glass of wine, but don’t gulp down bottles at the same time. If you drink a few glasses of wine during a nice party or dinner, alternate it with water. On one glass of wine, one glass of water. These are all small things that don’t make you look at nutrition rigidly, but don’t make you go too far beyond your health book.

To vary

If you look at and consume your diet in this way, you will develop a diet that is varied, you can also participate in it without thinking that you will end up a few kilos heavier and you will not consume your calories too unilaterally.

Small adjustments

If you are afraid that you may sometimes go beyond your limits, make some small changes. Small changes in life that can be applied without complications.

To sleep

The simplest and extremely good thing is sleep. Make sure you get at least seven hours of sleep per night. Researchers have discovered that if you get too little sleep you produce the hormone ghrelin. This hormone makes you hungry. For example, if you consistently get too little sleep, you may eat four hundred to five hundred calories more per day.

New cutlery

If you don’t have them yet, get the chopsticks. Some people already use them when eating oriental cuisine, but what do you care about taking all your food with you? The brain later receives the signal that your stomach is full and that may mean that you continue to eat. It takes about twenty minutes before the signal comes and unfortunately that often means that you are actually eating too much. By eating with chopsticks, the entire eating process is a lot slower, you get the signal in time and so you eat less. In addition, it has been shown that on balance you eat slightly less with chopsticks than with a knife and fork. Couple it with extra chewing before you force everything down your esophagus and you also contribute to not eating too much.

Light is not light

Besides the fact that not all light products are really light, it has been shown that many light products make you eat more and, on balance, you therefore do not gain anything from them. So limit light products to a minimum and to products that are really light. In soft drinks such as cola or orange, light is really light. But don’t drink any more of it. Replacing a regular glass of coke with a glass of diet coke is fine, but leave it at that and don’t think that you can swallow the entire bottle.

Plate

If you serve from the bowl or pan, you will serve less if you take a smaller plate. What is important is that if you prepare food for a few days, you also immediately put the portion for other days in the correct packaging. This prevents you from having to keep bragging, especially if you are a fast eater (but also try chopsticks). If you have made food for one meal, pay attention to how much you make. It’s a waste of food (and therefore money) that you have to throw away and it prevents you from bragging more often.

Nice walk

We know that exercise is good for us, but if you are not a real athlete by nature, be careful with your other exercise moments and walk a bit after your meal. Good for the nutrition that is currently being guided through the gastrointestinal tract and good for the daily exercise that your body needs. During the cold months it is also good to get enough daylight.

Finally

You don’t have to follow a strict diet to lose weight. By doing it in a balanced way and still living normally, it also works. Just not that quickly, but this way you change your lifestyle and that is much better in the long run. Get help if you can’t do it on your own, but ultimately you’ll have to do it yourself.