By Samantha Taylor
Pure Health Studios
Week 2 – Eat Every 3 Hours
You have about seven weeks before summer to get working on a better beach body. Last week I talked about portion control and its positive effect on weight loss. This week’s tip is directly related to last week’s lesson.
If you eat smaller portions you will want to eat more often because you aren’t consuming as many calories in a meal. To have a lean body that is a fat-burning machine, you need to eat every three hours as a way of life.
Now don’t freak out if you only eat once a day. Eating frequently is a habit that can take some time to develop. It also takes more planning because if you don’t have snacks planned, then you may be stuck with food that you should not eat.
I have helped almost 1,000 people lose weight and my experience is that the people who only eat once or twice a day are the ones who always struggle the most with their weight. When you go long periods of time without food on a regular basis, your body thinks food is not plentiful fat. Your body literally thinks you are starving or hibernating because you are not eating enough food. And that perpetuates the cycle of your body storing fat in case you don’t get food again.
Eating only once or twice a day can be a tough habit to break, but it’s a critical part of achieving your better beach body for life. People tell me, “Well I am not hungry.” That is a problem! If you are not experiencing a natural sensation of feeling hungry every three hours or so, that tells me your body is not functioning with a high metabolism. You need to retrain your body to take in smaller amounts of food more frequently and you will start to see the weight fall off.
You know those skinny people who eat all the time? That is one reason why they are skinny —because they have literally programmed their body to not hold onto their fat because they keep giving their body nutrition and calories all day long.
Of course, eating healthy foods is an important part of their success. If you eat pizza, ice cream and fried food every three hours, that is not going to help you lose weight because those are high calorie foods. The way to lose weight and keep it off for life is to feed your body regularly so it’s not in a state of deprivation. I probably eat about six to eight times a day, including meals and snacks.
I had a client who lost 75 pounds eating every three hours while her friends were doing the starvation diets of 500 calories. She still eats every three hours and has kept the weight off for three years while her friends have gained all their weight back.
This works, trust me. Visit my blog for more weight loss tips at www.thisisfit.com. At this site you can enter a loss contest to win a Mini Spa Package from Cameo Salon & Spa in Lutz. Whoever loses the most percentage of weight over the next seven weeks will win.
Quick Travel Snacks
- Kashi TLC Crackers or a whole grain pita with Hummus
- Kellogg’s All Bran Fiber crackers with a few slices of cheese (no more than 10 grams of fat)
- Fruit (½ cup strawberries or ½ cup green grapes or an apple)
- 1/2 banana with 1 T Smucker’s All Natural Peanut Butter and Polamer All Natural Jelly on one slice whole grain bread
- Kashi Autumn Wheat cereal (this cereal is great dry, carry a cup in a sandwich baggie)
- EAS Myoplex protein shake, LITE – Chocolate Fudge (these are premixed and really convenient when you are in a hurry.
- Can of green beans with a tsp. of olive oil and salt and pepper (fresh veggies are better but sometimes you don’t have the time)
- ½ cup of sliced zucchini and squash dipped in 1 T of low fat ranch dressing
- Diced tomato and cucumber salad with Italian dressing
Samantha Taylor is owner of Pure Health Studios in Lutz. She is a nutrition and health expert, certified personal trainer and professional speaker. For more information about her weight loss program, go to purehalthstudios.com or call (813) 909-4939.
