“Lean Habits for Lifelong Weight Loss”.

Habits to stay SLIM FOREVER.

Feb 23, 2017·6 min read

I’m half through this amazing book, that EVERYONE MUST GET. Or at least read both of my blogs and apply the habits. Daily.

Lean Habits For Lifelong Weight Loss: Mastering 4 Core Eating Behaviors to Stay Slim Forever

You MUST GET IT, if you want to learn how to eat and live in a lean body, full of energy and enthusiasm for life, eating your cake and having it too.

No calorie counting. No diets. No hours of stupid cardio you hate.

I practice my version of those habits, adjusting them to my lifestyle and personality/body type. But I had to learn, piecing together the right kind of knowledge from so many sources into a holistic picture of health, experimenting and finding out what works and what is a total BS. And that took lots of time! And stress! And yo-yo weight loss/health journey. I wish I had this book to get me started! It would save me so much time and energy!

The author, Georgie Fear, is a registered dietician, RD, AND she walks her talk, that happens so rarely these days in health/wellness movement.

I remember not so long ago, I went to some meet-up for health coaches. The host, who was basically trying to sell his multi-layer marketing scheme selling some “miracle” supplement, the host was obese barely having enough energy to stand through the whole event, proclaiming, that his supplement will make you rich so fast, because it gives your clients energy, makes them youthful, treats all modern world diseases and conditions…

I went out after 5 minutes or so. You understand why.

BUT this woman, Georgie, she knows what she’s talking about. And she looks it!

I’m falling in love with the book. I wish I have written this one!

Deep science, just enough, for the curious and geeks like me.

And practice, that makes sense.

Like having a checklist for your habits, and making a mark daily, when you succeed and when you fail (no one is perfect). To keep track of progress. To stay on the path to success.

Or like taking on one habit at a time, mastering it and then moving to the next one — not to overwhelm yourself and to make the habit, behaviors automatic, before moving to the next one.

Today I’m sharing first 3 habits. The rest will be up tomorrow. Bite size portions of health knowledge for better digestion and absorption.

“LEAN HABIT 1:

EAT 3 OR 4 MEALS PER DAY WITHOUT SNACKING.

Factor in adjustments to your schedule, but plan three evenly spaced meals over about a twelve-hour period.”

This is a great place to start! Non-snacking habit.

Why?

All the science and details are in the book. For now you need to understand, that snacking makes you a food addict, messing up your metabolism, turning you into a sugar/carbs addict and burner, and keeping you from becoming a fat-burning machine, that you were meant to be.

If human beings were designed to eat every other hour, we would die off long time ago, because before, food was never that available as it is now, and our body was designed to survive and function well with or without food, burning fat most of the time, since meals were scarce.

And actually we function much better going for longer periods of time without food. Our whole body works better. AND we stay leaner easier. And actually we feel fuller and more satisfied, because fewer meals allow us to eat more at each meal, being satisfied with the amount physically and mentally.

I eat one HUGE meal of the right kinds of foods, and I’ve never been happier. But I do drink 2 fatty coffees also. So you might say I’m having 3 meals per day.

“LEAN HABIT 2: MASTER YOUR HUNGER

Commit to feeling steady hunger for 30 to 60 minutes before each meal.”

The main takeaway here is to FEEL your hunger. Be guided by your TRUE HUNGER. Hunger, that starts and feels in your stomach — emptiness, some noises, desire for any kind of food, not just that particular cookie or pasta dish you CRAVE so much RIGHT NOW and would DIE FOR.

True hunger is actually kind of pleasant — satisfying it gives you true pleasure, beautiful satisfaction, physical and emotional, feeling of true nourishment and love, gratitude.

True hunger has nothing to do with feeling cranky, dizzy, shaky, craving particular food — those are signs of addiction, problems with blood sugar, your fat/carbs metabolism, and other malfunctions of a damaged body.

Learn to feel what real, true hunger feels like. Love it. Learn to satisfy it with the right kind of foods in the right amounts.

I eat my huge meals ONLY when I’m hungry. I never force myself to eat because it’s a meal time, and when I eat, I don’t eat till the plate is empty. I eat, till I feel like it, and move away food, when I feel it’s enough. Eating slowly and mindfully, chewing more, paying attention to food and your feelings inside the body is a must.

“LEAN HABIT 3: EAT MOSTLY WHOLE FOODS

Choose foods closest to their natural state for the bulk of your meals.”

(4th habit in the book)

I can’t stress how important that is — to connect to your hunger and body, that will guide your weight loss and health naturally.

Only real whole foods can help.

The rest is entertainment, distraction and addiction.

“What we want to reduce the intake of with this habit includes items that have been highly processed (containing more than five or so ingredients is a good clue), or are hyper-palatable thanks to lots of added sugars, salt and fat. Plain frozen veggies or canned beans are not to worry about.”
“On your next shopping trip, try to focus on the perimeter of the store: produce, meat, dairy and refrigerated items. Can you get home without any foil bags, cardboard boxes or plastic trays?”

It might seem almost impossible, I know. But you, your health, your beautiful body, your life, energy, dreams are worth it. And once it’s a habit — it’s not that difficult. It becomes your second nature.

I’m not perfect with this.

For my meals I always choose whole foods, freshly cooked, organic.

But sometimes I live for a few days on my mushroom coffee with sugar free organic whole food made coconut cream, and whole food made plant raw protein shakes. And some 100% sugar free premium dark chocolate.

I just don’t crave anything then.

But I always go back to — vegetables (variety, color, fresh, organic, local), fatty fish (wild, the fattier the better), nuts and seeds (raw or dry roasted, no vegetable oils, no salt), some berries here and there. That’s me. Not perfect. But totally in-tuned with my body and its needs, and never forgetting about the important — whole foods, real foods to nourish me, to make me, to heal me.

To be continued…

Stay tuned — the rest is up tomorrow on my blog.

Watch, to learn more (secret habit inside) and remember better.

Get the book — it’s a short engaging fun read and totally worth every minute of your time!