I’m going to make a bold statement straight away. You can lose weight and never count a calorie. This seems like health-nut blasphemy, I know. Counting calories can make you into an insane person. In some cases it simply doesn’t make sense. Eating natural, whole, nutrient-rich foods is the best way to a healthy, active and slimmer lifestyle.

The general principal behind weight loss is a simple one: you have to burn more than you consume. This totally works- its only logical, but it could be completely unhealthy. Take anorexia for example. It works, too, but is obviously not the way to go about things. This is my main problem with only counting calories. You could fill an entire day of “100 calorie packs” of cookies, crackers, etc, and never consume any real nutrients you need. So you could essentially be filling your belly with calories,but not supplying your body any of the things it needs to run properly. What is good about those diet foods anyway? You can justify all you want and say they taste “pretty good for 50 calories” or whatever, but we all know most of it tastes like cardboard. I realize I recommend some less-than-scrumptious foods, but there is a reason for eating them. Maybe you don’t want to eat that pile of roasted vegetables, but you know they contain tons of vitamins, minerals, fiber and protein (yes, some veggies have protein ie: leafy greens). I happen to enjoy a big mess of veggies. Most low calorie processed foods don’t care about anything except keeping that calorie number low, not what nutrients (or anti-nutrients) they contain. Bottom line is they don’t DO anything for you.

Counting calories is very imprecise, unless you carry your kitchen scales around with you everywhere. There are many sites to look up calorie count, but you may not know what they used to measure the count. Calories are different in raw chicken and cooked chicken. Your pasta sauce may have olive oil in it, while the website you check measured a pasta sauce without oil and will result in totally different calorie numbers and fat grams. There are simply too many variables in life to make counting every calorie realistic. Restaurants do not make every single dish exactly the same with exactly the same amount of ingredients, so how do you know that meal is only 550 calories? You can’t.

But guess what. Vegetables and fruits are naturally low in calories! On Weight Watchers, they allow you to eat as many fresh fruits and vegetables as you want. They usually don’t even factor into their point system- they’re freebies, if you will. Doesn’t it make sense to eat a majority of foods that are low in calories and high in nutrients? Your body is fueled by what it needs, without being weighed down by what it doesn’t need. I’ve talked before about the importance of good fats, and that’s where many of your calories will come from. Again, it’s illogical, to me at least, to compare an avocado and some Snackwells cookies based on calories. You know how good avocado is for you, but it is probably higher in calories than those cookies because it is high in fat.

Get your priorities straight. Eat what you need to live your best life. Think about when you eat a bad meal. It makes you tired and want to lay around which is clearly not conducive to weight loss or an active lifestyle. When you have proper fuel, you will be properly energized for whatever your day may have in store for you. Read the ingredients on everything. If the list of ingredients is longer than your arm and looks like another language, PUT IT DOWN. Know that you are eating real food and not fillers and preservatives.

By: Ashley Dance

Chances are, yes… If you are answering the question above. But you are most likely not eating enough. It seems like everyday I see people who never have breakfast or eat breakfast and then nothing again till dinner. You must eat to lose weight, but more than that you must eat so you don’t send your body into “starvation mode”. This will only complicate things more.

When you are not eating and then on top of that eating NON-nutrient dense foods then you are fooling your body. Making it believe that this is all the nutrients it going to get, this will send it into store/starvation mode. This is when the body will store everything for fear of not getting any more. So you will store everything from good carbs to bad carbs, fats and oils, vitamins and minerals all this on top of or in your fat. The little nutrients you are getting will be burnt quickly for energy leaving the harder to burn toxins from bad foods and chemicals to be burnt later. This will compound the problem if you are looking to lose weight and achieve whole health, taking you longer to lose or to start losing the weight.

Calorie restrictions are fine just don’t obsess about the amount but do worry about the nutrient density. If you reduce calories make sure the calories you are getting are so packed full nutrients that you can feel it. Trading your soda for kombucha, coffee for water, nutri-grain bar for grass fed eggs and turkey bacon. Eat more and more nutrient dense foods often, you will retrain your body and start using the fat that you have store. Your body will actually start thriving instead of surviving, you will lose weight before you even step into the gym.

Eating well also helps you finish your day strong or get through that tough work out with that annoying trainer You will also save energy for digestion and your immune system. This will give you a much higher quality of life as well as the energy to live it.

Try eating every 3 hours but eating foods that don’t have labels, you know? Real raw foods. Throw in some cooked treats to but nothing starchy or with any sugar or sweeteners at all. Ask us how we can help you more!