What if you found out that you’ve been eating the wrong way all these years? What if you knew that changing the way that you ate could help you in achieving long-term weight loss? If we could change our eating habits to help us lose the weight and keep it off, then surely we would. The good news is that if you work to reset your eating clock then you will create long-term weight loss and a much healthier overall internal environment.
The reality is that most of us grew up learning to eat three square meals a day. What does this do for you? It ensures that you get way too hungry in between meals, and then you end up overdoing it when it’s finally mealtime. As if that wasn’t bad enough, many of us thought that if we wanted to lose weight that you could simply skip a meal or two along the way. What this does over the long-term is create a terrible cycle of deprivation and binging that actually contributes to weight gain.
It’s time to stop the cycle, and if you focus on what it takes to reset your eating clock then you will be much more successful in the end. You won’t ever get too hungry, you’ll never feel deprived, and you will feel naturally fueled by the right foods. It’s all about keeping yourself going all day long with good healthy foods, and here’s how to change that internal clock once and for all to get to where you want to be.
Eat something within 30 minutes of waking up: Forget about the old school thinking that you must skip breakfast to cut back on your calorie consumption. This allows you to get far too hungry, and there is great power in breakfast anyhow. If you want to help your eating clock work for you, then fuel it with breakfast first thing in the morning. Be sure to eat something of substance within 30 minutes of waking up. If you can accompany it with some exercise, that makes for an even more powerful equation.
Always drink a glass of water just before and just after a meal: Drinking water is always important, but drinking a big glass of it before mealtime helps you out in this capacity. You help yourself to fill up so that you don’t overdo it at mealtime, and you also aid digestion. So make hydration a priority, and aim to drink water just before and just after a meal to keep yourself focused on portions and proper digestion as well.
Aim to eat a mini meal at least every 3-4 hours: This is by far one of the most important ways to help reset your eating clock. Rather than waiting too long until mealtime, you keep yourself going all day long with smaller portions of food. Plan out your mini meals, try to combine food groups, and break up the larger meals that you used to eat into smaller meals that you can snack on throughout the day. By eating one of these mini meals every 3-4 hours, you can ensure that you never get too hungry and that you give your body the fuel that it needs.
Keep eating smaller portions throughout the day instead of the fasting and binging cycle: You probably thought that losing weight was about depriving yourself in some way. Forget about cutting back on your calories drastically or only allowing yourself to eat a few foods. Eat the right foods but keep to smaller portions that give you what your body needs. This helps to reset your eating clock but it also ensures that you have what you need — and then you’re never tempted to eat the wrong foods or overdo it at any one sitting.
Don’t eat anything for about two hours prior to going to sleep: If you eat right throughout the day, then you won’t need that bedtime snack. Your body does need a chance to rejuvenate and when you avoid eating for a couple of hours before bedtime, then you give it that chance to do so. Give it a rest, let the foods that you ate act as fuel, and then start the cycle over again the next day. You’ll be amazed at how eating in this way helps you feel healthier and lose weight in a really effective way!
